High school drop outs

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eds1275:

--- Quote from: Generic Eric on April 21, 2015, 12:53:29 pm ---I dunno man.

It sounds like you've already went the extra mile.
--- End quote ---

I went the extra mile a few years ago when I was dirt-eating broke (moved to an island, all the jobs are taken!) and still made an arcade machine with them.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,113905.msg1209501

I don't think they can be forced back into it. Perhaps guilted, for a while, but I think the key is making them want to be there. I hated school with a fiery vengeance. My first job was teaching kung fu to the lower classes and every big kid thought that was a challenge, so I was always being pushed into fighting and getting in trouble for it. However I knew that it was a big stepping stone that would pass and so I powered through it. The GED courses and stuff are fine for the educational value (I think most of the crap taught in schools is useless knowledge and the whole system needs an overhaul.) In my opinion the most important part of school is learning that people are ---uvulas--- and you have to deal with it to an extent.

If one of them does end up with me it's not a free ride. I will make them pay.

--- Quote from: yotsuya on April 21, 2015, 12:57:46 pm ---Quoted for Troof. Dropouts = lost dollars. Maybe their HS system offers alternative programs like online coursework or alternative schools?

--- End quote ---

I'm pretty sure their school in a converted barn, and the teacher a toothless, straw chewing old man wearing nothing but a straw hat and overalls holding a bible in one hand and a textbook in the other. It's not a religious school, but they say there's an awful lot of religious stuff happening there... and they are in the middle of nowhere

dkersten:

--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on April 21, 2015, 12:43:39 pm ---There are very few school systems that I know of that will actually fail you due to absences. If you try to work with them they'll find a way to keep the kids in school.

--- End quote ---
Ours has a policy: over 10 absences in a semester and regardless of your grades, you fail automatically. The reason is they don't get the funding if they aren't actually there, although the "official" reason is because they don't think the kid is learning enough if he isn't there, and it is unfair to students later who have to be in a class where the teacher is spending extra time with that kid to get them caught up.

There is a one time chance where if you miss that many you can sign a contract with the dean where you get credit for the semester if the next semester you miss less than 6 days.

Personally, I think it is a really bad policy, after all it was the nudge that pushed my son to drop out. If they hadn't removed those credits, he would have graduated with a B average, on time, despite all the missed classes. He would have had to retake his entire senior year as well as do summer school, despite only failing 1 class academically.

eds1275:
I'm not saying I am a math wizard, but high school math was really easy for me. I was told beginning of semester that tests were worth 75% of the grade. I skipped every class but the tests and got like 72% overall, but was failed due to "attendance." I think this was grade 9 or 10. Nonsense.

BorgDog:
When my youngest daughter was a senior in high school, she would skip a lot and they threatened the fail for "unexcused absences", but she was the same would show up on test days and easily pass all the tests. At the time they had a phone system that would call us and leave a message if she had any absences, of course she was home before us and would delete them off the answering machine, but we could also call into the system and check up on her which we ended up doing everyday, and used the automated system to "excuse" her absences so she ended up passing what she needed to and graduating. Not sure that would work now, but we figured that as long as she could pass the tests why not, and she was 18 before her senior year so there wasn't a lot we could do to force her to be there.

dkersten:

--- Quote from: eds1275 on April 21, 2015, 01:30:54 pm ---I don't think they can be forced back into it. Perhaps guilted, for a while, but I think the key is making them want to be there.
--- End quote ---
Sometimes you have to exert your authority and even call the sheriff or truancy officer to put some fear into them.

And I am not sure you can make any kid want to be in school. It is rare for a kid to actually like it. If you can't maintain authority over them, the trick (imho) would be to show them the consequences of not graduating. Of course, kids don't really believe in consequences, they are immortal and these days have a massive sense of entitlement, so in their minds nothing bad can happen to them and they will end up making all the money in the world with or without an education because people owe them that much...

In my case, I believe my son's turning point was when he realized just how much his actions had screwed up his life. The final nail was driven home when he was sitting in jail on a traffic violation and the drug dealers he used to work with were being transported to the federal prison by a DEA agent that was also one of the people in his group (undercover). If he hadn't been picked up on a random search a few months before, he would have been with those guys waiting for transport to federal prison for 10 years.

Until a kid's eyes are opened up by something that shakes their life up, they aren't going to change their path, so you just have to exert authority where you can and do your best to keep them on the right path. When they are supporting themselves and their own decisions each have consequences they feel, they will look back and realize you kept them on that path for a reason, but until then, they just think you're an ---uvula---.

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