The Blue Blog

I would like to respond to Debbie’s writing concerning an article from Cnn.com, which discusses the high dropout rates in American public high schools.  Debbie writes that at times, it seems that politicians are only worried about this problem because they would be heroes if they come up with a solution, and school administrators sometimes seem to worry only about how much money they are losing.  While I think that, at times, this can be the case, I think the focus on the number of dropouts can also be attributed to the need for everyone to figure out just “what’s wrong” with our schools.  There are low test scores, there are lower grades, there are lower standards, there is insufficient instruction for teachers- I have heard all of these, and the dropout question just seems to be another way of stating the question of the day: Why are our schools not doing what they should?

So, what would a plan to stop people from dropping out of high school look like?  We might hear things like, “We’re going to encourage after-school programs” or “We’re going to provide alternate classes that are more suited to the interests of the students,” or a number of other strategies that, as Debbie suggests, are merely there to make it seem that those in power are really trying to care about the students.  I, however, would like to paint a realistic picture of what schools have to deal with in order to tackle the issue of dropouts: students drop out because they are in trouble with the law, they get pregnant, education is not valued in their family or community, they have an unstable home life, or they think that working a low-paying job is fine for them.  They also drop out because of alcohol and drug use, the attitude that school is worthless, and to show defiance to authority, and probably for a number of reasons that are too lengthy to list here.  The point is, since there are so many varieties and combinations of problems that cause students to drop out (and I have observed quite a few of them affecting people I knew in high school), how will one program made up by any committee or politician really work to lower dropout rates?

Debbie points out that, in the article posted online, no one asks the vital question, why are students dropping out?  While I have tried to answer this in a brief and superficial way, I would be interested in reading the full article published in Time magazine to get a feel for what the “experts” are saying about high school dropouts.  It also leaves another question in my mind, which is whether in the future, when I am an educator, there will be an even longer list of reasons for students to drop out and what, if anything, I will feel I need to do about it as a teacher.