My high school drop out mistake began at age fifteen. Although
legally I could have been forced to continue attending school until age
of 16, the big city school that I attended either didn't have a truant
officer or if it did, no one was sent to my house to investigate why a youngster of fifteen all of a sudden wasn't going to school.
The reality was this school just didn't care. In fact, in my opinion neither the administration nor the teachers really cared about the students. And, therein lies the primary reason why most youngsters drop out of big city high schools. They perceive, and accurately so, that no one cares about them. To put it another way, no one is likely to take the time to understand what they are experiencing in their lives that might be driving them towards dropping out of high school. They just drop out and become another statistic.
However after dropping out and wasting nearly three and a half years of my life, having no sense of direction and getting into trouble in the streets, I enlisted into the Army. My goals for going into the Army were to finish high school and to learn a marketable trade. I did not realize either of these two goals, although I did complete cook school and became an army cook. Nevertheless, the two benefits that were really helpful for me were the GI bill providing Educational Benefits and the Veterans' Home Loan benefit. After being honorably discharged, I took advantage of both. One allowed me to enter and complete undergraduate school and the other allowed me to gain ownership of my first home.
Although it took me six years from the time I dropped out after my second year in high school to graduate from high school, the learning experience was invaluable. I then had acquired the inner motivation and discipline to complete undergraduate school, to complete graduate school, and to go on to become licensed in three different professions.
The lesson here is that if just one teacher or administrator would take maybe five to ten minutes after classes are over to engage a youngster in a conversation about how things are going at home; how things are going with his class mates; and, how things are going in his neighborhood. Then after this conversation, to invite the parent to come in for a conversation about how they can work together in behalf of the student.
Just this small act would significantly reduce the number of yearly drop outs.
Do you know any youngsters who had a similar experience as I did? Leave your comments below.
