Don't Drop Out. Take Control of Your Education

This is a message to all teenagers who are prone to dropping out of high school. 

When you become a teenager you will increasingly be held responsible for your actions and behavior. Your parents will expect you to take responsibility for your own clothes, your allowance, and your chores as a resident of the household. Taking responsibility for your education is no exception.

It's Your Future
Think about your future. Consider what your strengths are. There is something that you do well – – something that you become so engrossed in that the time goes by without you noticing or something that you do so well that others would say that you are in your “element”.

My brother had a natural gift for playing the piano which we discovered early. He would hear a tune and just began playing it on the piano without knowing how to read a word of music on a music sheet. On a different note, when I was a teenager it was the norm for a group of guys on a summer night to gather together under the street lamps and just sing. Many of these guys went on to either form or become parts of great singing groups.

Know Your Strengths  
Consider your strengths and skills very carefully. Keep in mind that you will have some teachers who are caring and competent and some who are uncaring and incompetent. Use your powers of discernment  and do whatever it takes to get out of the bad teachers’ classes. Enlist your parents' help and, if necessary, go to the principal together. It is your education and your future. And by your efforts, you’ll get your parents to wake up and take notice.

Accept Challenges 
Do not get discouraged and drop out of school. If you feel at all that your actions are futile, then you and your awakened parents can work together to get you transferred to a new school. However, if you remain in your current school, ask your good teachers to challenge you more. This is an especially  good step to take if it’s a subject you like and if it has significant real world value. More on this and how it worked for me in a future post.

Once again, take control of your education and your future. Don’t drop out of school.  

Superb Ways to Prevent Dropouts

We cannot afford to shortchange our youngsters intelligence.  When you, as a teacher, make your
classroom interesting and challenging, you show that you are interested in the child intellectual advancement and the child's effort will reflect that.

And, as a child goes through his elementary grades and advances to high school, that high school must find ways to individualize the education of the youngsters and show the child that their presence in the classroom is important. Indeed, the whole climate in the school must reflect that for all the students.

The school must not only teach basic subjects, but also be flexible enough to have the child pursue personal interests either in or out of the classroom and get credit for doing so. The youngsters who created the app for dealing with police brutality are to be commended just as much or more so than the youngsters who excel in basketball or football..

We must recognize our children not only for their athletic prowess, but also for their intellectual accomplishments.  This gives an equal recognition and consideration to both and when children know that their individual efforts are being appreciated and praised you will get more of that type of effort. Always keep this in mind. It will go along way towards preventing dropouts.



What would you like to add to these ways? Leave them below.