What Benefit a System That Points to an Exit?

If you did not read Jack Fichter’s front-page story Feb. 16, make it a point to do so. If you read it in haste, please, go back, read it again. This time, read between the lines. The story dealt with the state Department of Education’s filing “report cards” of local schools.
We all know many success stories take place in schools daily that are unwritten. Sadly, they don’t “count” when it comes to state report cards. So I don’t want to discount the positive things, but what we see reported is a failure, not so much of students as the system that led to their decision to leave school.
Cloaked in percentages takes the face away from a young man or woman who decides to end education. Most of those young people are armed with the infinite knowledge only teenagers possess, that drives them to do irrational things, but things that make sense at the time.
Let us be frank: We spend the greatest portion of our property tax dollars on schools. Because of that, we expect ever more results from “the educational system.” We hear rhetoric from politicians and teachers’ union officials. Still, “at the end of the day” it all boils down to the student, a confused teen who has a million things on his or her mind, education being one of them, and often not the most important.
According to Fichter’s story, “A number of schools in the county show a high rate of pupils leaving during the school year.”
One would think, if anything, by the time students were in high school, they would have looked around Cape May County and drawn the conclusion: “Unless I get an education then leave, my future options are severely limited.” Good, solid jobs here are few, and getting fewer.
That would be all the more reason to stay in school, get a diploma, then see what the world has to offer. Armed services don’t want high school dropouts. Everything in the service is geared toward those who are schooled and want to learn more, not quitters.
My theory, and it is simply that, why some students reach a point of no return and decide to depart: They are discouraged by ever-higher standards.
It’s one thing for taxpayers to demand schools raise the bar, it’s quite another to be the one who must clear that bar.
Consider new methods of teaching. My granddaughter is being taught an entirely different way to calculate mathematics than I ever knew. It is helpful if Pop Pop doesn’t try to help with homework, since that’s not the way it’s taught any longer.
That is but grade school. Rachet it up many notches, and put yourself in a 12th grade class. You don’t understand the subject, but it’s mandatory you pass. You ask for help, and get it. But what if you happen to be one of those who simply does not test well? You fail a test. You get more help, and still you fail. You look around at friends. Some of seem to have no problem comprehending subjects, again you get failing grades.
You have to pass this test and that test, or you don’t get promoted or graduated. You are given several attempts on those state-mandated tests that taxpayers have been screaming about to prove their money, spent on education, is well invested. You fail. You could take remedial courses, but you are young, and your parents (if you live with them) just “don’t” understand. You fail again. Summer school seems the only avenue to a diploma.
Your hormones are raging. The future is not clear. You never asked to be brought into this world, life seems not worth living at 16, what do you do?
Sadly, according to state figures, too many young people opt to quit school. They do not fully understand what that will mean to them or their future ability to earn money.
If they are “lucky” and healthy, and have muscle and guts to work hard (like 16 hours a day or longer, maybe seven days a week at a pop), they might land a bunk on a commercial fishing boat. The money is decent, but the life is hard, yet it’s one of the avenues open to kids who drop out.
It is also way too easy for school dropouts to get involved in the fast life of “easy money” peddling illicit drugs. Sooner or later, that leads to a continuing life of crime and downward spiral that ultimately lands one in a prison cell.
Many factors play into a teen’s decision to go or stay in school. A solid home life, which many lack, is a prime factor to keep a student in class rather than dropping out. Mentors are an important link to staying, many don’t have one.
I blame “the system,” for heaping ever greater requirements on students to graduate. This causes cheating, by whatever name it is called, either by the pupil or the school. Schools, of course, flatly deny anything of the sort in order to attain state smiles. But failure is as bad to them as to the student, even worse.
Community colleges, such as Atlantic Cape Community College, must accept county residents. Sadly, according to a top college official, a great amount of college time must be spent on remediation of high school graduates in math and language arts. That means someone cheated somewhere in “the system.” It also means the pupil graduated, but “the system” failed miserably. But no one’s to blame, so all go away happy, to the bank at least, and into a comfy retirement.
As a society, let us begin to fully realize what high bars we place on the next generation that we could not clear. Goals to be worthwhile must be attainable or we will see more students simply leave school. That is an awful waste of time, talent, taxes, but most important, a young life.