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High-school drop-outs are getting a lot of attention these days, with many proposals surfacing to make sure kids stay in school long enough to get diplomas.
One approach emerged at the local school board meeting
Tuesday night, when the board agreed to start an
alternative high school.
The high school principal explained that A lot of
these kids had good grades before they dropped out. They're
not stupid. But they're into heavy metal music and stuff
like that. They don't fit into the regular school
environment.
And what would the alternative high school be
like?
a board member asked.
Just classes. No clubs, no sports, no pep rallies,
none of that,
the principal replied.
There's no way to provide that kind of environment in
our high school?
No, there really isn't,
the principal said.
Alternative High sounds like an interesting approach to education, though some may find it alarming that a student who just wants to go to class will not be able to find that environment in a regular high school.
However, the major problem with drop-outs is really in cities and suburbs, not here in the boondocks, where it doesn't matter. They say that dropping out means you'll spend your life in a low-paying dead-end job flipping hamburgers or cleaning motel rooms. A doctorate from Harvard means the same thing, since those are the only jobs available in rural areas.
The state legislature has also considered the problem, probably because drop-outs may grow up poor and thus vote for Democrats someday. Several legislators proposed tying school attendance to driver's licenses. If you're under 18 and you aren't in school, you don't drive. Since all kids presumably live for the day they turn 16 and start driving, they will thus stay in school.
Psychology books say the human has an insatiable need to learn, to know things, just as we have hunger, thirst and sexual drives. So why is it that getting kids to attend school requires every force of persuasion and law, whereas they're quite eager to pursue those other urges?
Could it be that schools aren't fulfilling that need to learn, and that the legislature is going about things backward, treating the symptom instead of the disease?
Never mind. That's a philosophical problem which won't be resolved in this century, if ever. The practical solution is not driver's licenses, though. License or no license, kids will find a way to get around. If we're serious about reducing the drop-out rate by threatening kids with deprivation of something they desperately want, we need two new classes of license.
For suburban kids, the state should issue Shopping
Mall Hang-out Permits
to all who remain students. If
you're caught hanging around a mall without a permit, it's
off to the slammer. Downtown, the police will be checking
for Boom Box Licenses,
which work the same way.
Even if this doesn't put drop-outs back in school, it will at least improve public life by eliminating two major sources of noise and aggravation, which is more than you can say for the other plans.
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