[QUOTE=DrCube]
Lots of 16 year olds get jobs where I live today. Work experience gives them skills to offer their next employer, not to mention their hobbies, like fixing cars or welding stuff. Kids with an actual interest in ‘book learning’ will learn it themselves like I did out of libraries and go on to college. In fact, since GED tests are scored by comparison to graduating high schoolers and you have to do better than 2/3 of them to pass, I’d say dropouts with GEDs are a step ahead of the diploma-folks if I’m the one hiring.
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Not snarking, honestly—are these jobs that have a future? For instance, the military: it wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but they can take a 17 year-old, feed and shelter him, and train him. He can do pretty well for a person with few skills and if he survives the experience, he might have a career path there. He could have benefits with the VA etc., could support a family, and so on.
And people can work at a local business, put in the hours and climb their way up to manager. A friend of mine started college with me but it just wasn’t for him and he still works at the local market but he’s not management, 25 years later. He really likes the work (to each his own) but it seems to be a dead end. E.g. will he ever be able to retire?
Re: the GED. That wasn’t the scenario I proposed…I’m talking about a kid who quit school and that was that. The choice: a kid who didn’t finish high school (no GED or further education) and a kid who graduated.
[QUOTE=DrCube]
You’ve never quit a job before? Yeah, when you hate everything you do there everyday, you quit and find a better job. That’s what you do. You don’t just sit around and accept it because ‘I’m not a quitter’.
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Sure, I’ve done something like that but not usually in that order (FIRST I found the next job, THEN I quit). If you have a skill that’s valued, the employer is likely to make your job bearable enough that you won’t want to quit. If you’re doing a job that anybody can do, like sweeping the floor, then they don’t have to treat you well at all.
[QUOTE=DrCube]
We realize that there is a trade-off between security and potential. You can stay at this shitty shitty job that you hate for 30 more years and stay well-fed, or you can quit and risk hunger, but potentially get a much higher paying job that you love. It’s the same in high school. Some kids drop out in order to get on with life, take their chances, learn more, and work hard. Some kids drop out to have more time to spend at home smoking weed and playing Guitar Hero. It isn’t that hard to weed out the latter group in job interviews, even without the trusty signal of a high school diploma.
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The article is saying that kids who will be monitored couldn’t wear the bracelets only on school days because many are runaways among them. My WAG is that the parents aren’t fighting this (and may be welcoming it).
IANAL but it would seem like a 16 year-old can’t have the privilege of an adult and the responsibility of a child. If you let them drop out at 16, without parental permission, then I wouldn’t make the parents responsible for them any more. E.g. Johnny decides to drop out of school against their wishes, gets into a boatload of trouble, and the parents are on the hook for it? IMO, 16 is too young to take on adult responsibilities, but YMMV.
If, on the other hand, the parents are legally responsible for their minor children, they have a stake in the school decision. They can say, “Shit! They’re putting an ankle bracelet on you? Who are these fascists? OK, that does it; where do I sign to take you out of public schools?” That may be followed by:
A) We’ll home school you
B) We’ll put you in a private school
C) You’ll study for your GED
D) We’ll find you a job
E) We really have no plan beyond that.
[QUOTE=DrCube]
I agree. For the most part, it is about other things. Like being treated like livestock.
By the way, the ‘17 year olds aren’t legally adults’ crap can stop right now. In addition to high school in general and Texas’s proposed solution to truancy, I’m pitting any and all laws that treat 17 (or even 16) year olds as less than fully adult.
And I realize that all public high schools aren’t shit, just most of them.
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Make the 16 and 17 year-old legally responsible as adults for all their actions and I might agree with you.
It’s always interesting to read the posts about how bad education is in other places. My public schools (K-12) were great; I can only think of one teacher who was a total dud and a couple who were jerks. I wouldn’t say all students were “into” school big time, but there was basic respect between teachers and students.
