shouldn't graduating from high school be law now?

Why are so many people on these boards so adimant about forcing public education of the nations youth.

With the piss poor state the institution of education is in right now, do you really want to be forcing a child through 13 (+? Thank you Bush) years of bull#?

And for what? So they can become 'educated'? By the government no less?

Take it from somebody who is still in the system, you don't learn anything of use in highschool. And what they do teach you, you could've very easily learned on your own in one fourth of the time if you put effort into it.

People should be allowed to learn what they want, when where and how without government interferance.

I believe it should be law, a lot of individuals are not self-motivated
to go back to school, or acquire a GED on their own. They will become
a burden on society, welfare or locked up which will co$t the taxpayers.

Sure some have made it without the HS diploma/GED, but what was
the era/times and their family's financial status????

[edit on 27-11-2004 by LL1]

Okay if not a law how about changing the law from dropping out to 16 to 18. Because I don't think the kids deserves that right until they at least reach 18, adult age.

Even if you graduate from high school doesn't mean you are educated. I quit high school for my own reasons(I dont wanna hear no reason is good enough)got my G.E.D. and went to college...You can float through high school you cant float through a GED test...making it law to get your HS diploma wouldn't be a good idea..Especially to a bunch of rebellious teenagers that like to go against authority.

Originally posted by CMCLA2003
Okay if not a law how about changing the law from dropping out to 16 to 18. Because I don't think the kids deserves that right until they at least reach 18, adult age.

At this point one must question the relavance of age. It is true that this society's laws are based heavily on age but therein lies flaws. There are many adults that have the maturity of grade school bullies whereas I have known many grade schoolers who have the maturity of adults. The bottom line is that age has little to do with maturity and maturity has everything to do with life.

Many people can honestly say that, due to the ignorance (not intelligence), many people should not be parents, have the right to vote, etc.

The difference between ignorance and stupidity is that ignorance is not knowing that you can know something whereas stupidity is knowing of an oportunity and not taking it.

If people want to learn then they will learn. If those who are not interested in learning are forced to stay in schools they will only cause those who wish to learn an education of lesser quality.

I havent graduated!

Im not a G.C.S.E educated, Im above all that.

IM not gonna mention the Illumanati, just the fact that I have been taught!

Freenasonary, School, whatever, the main is thing is that you know the truth!

The Illumanti control all, and in the end it all dosent matter!

Originally posted by neonine
if you ask me we should do away with a couple of years in high school and in middle school. here in Michagan your first 2 years in high school is a repeat of most of middle school. they need to make it so you can major in what you want to in high school. most people that like math and science dont like history and lit and visa vesa. why wast 5 or 6 yours of your life learning about something you could give two craps about.

I live in Michigan as well... and even though I didn't go to the best high school around, I do know that 'your first two years in high school are a repeat of most of middle school' isn't exactly true for every school you attend. Don't state it like it's a fact... because it's not =P As for giving 'two craps' or not about what you learn... you're gonna feel the same way all your life, get used to it. It's general knowledge, and believe it or not, it might just be beneficial one day.

Granted the 'education problem' varies from district to district, here at least, I think high school in itself teaches kids a lot of things they wouldn't normally see if they were sitting on their butts playing video games at home instead.

This isn't to put down anybody who dropped out and then got their GED or equivalency... like somebody already stated, there's a lot to do with motivation, not diplomas, when it comes to making something of yourself. Many here have already proven that. Even if these kids are FORCED to stay in school, what's to say they won't create problems for those around them? You're the taxpayer, if you really want to pay for some kids to go and 'hang out' all day, that's your decision I guess.

Unfortunately, my brother dropped out, but he waited until he was older, and all he did in the meantime was screw around and serve as a distraction for the kids that were actually there to learn something. What is he doing now? Nothing. He lacks that motivation we were talking about earlier. My point? There are issues on either side. He would still have dropped out if he had waited until he was 18 by law... because that is WHEN he dropped out. The only think he helped in was causing a whole lot of teachers a whole lot of stress and disruping classmates.

It's a great 'pipe dream', hoping that making it manditory for kids to stay in school until they're 18 or graduate will turn them into 'productive members of society', but it's horribly unrealistic. You're tossed out of most high schools as soon as you turn 19 and you haven't graduated anyways if you aren't on track. Hello Adult Ed.

There are valid arguments on both sides, to be sure, but nobody can convince me that making this a law would be beneficial for anybody, especially not for the kids, those intending to drop out or otherwise.

Originally posted by LL1
I believe it should be law, a lot of individuals are not self-motivated
to go back to school, or acquire a GED on their own. They will become
a burden on society, welfare or locked up which will co$t the taxpayers.

At the risk of loosing allot of respect from any member that reads this, I think I should share my own school experience here. I did not graduate from high-school. In fact, I didn�t receive a passing grade in any subject except band from the 4th grade on. I attended high-school for only one year, and did not test for my GED until I was 20. When I finally did take the test, with no practice, I scored in the top 98% of all who had ever taken the test nation wide, the only exception being math at 76%. I didn't begin working toward college until after the GED.

I have never been arrested, never been on welfare (although I now support a family of 7 humans, 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 snakes and a fish with only my income at 24 years of age) and I am no burden to society.

No one so far has challenged the validity of a high-school diploma as a measure of education. The document and attendance mean nothing, and employers are beginning to wake up to this. Traditional education is nothing more than the conditioning of good factory workers, and our economy is changing. No longer do we need people who are conditioned to drop whatever it is they are doing at the sound of a bell ringing and move to the next appointed area of the school/factory. We need intelligent, thinking people. School does not teach a person to think, it teaches a person to recite. If schools were supposed to be about learning, our children would not be regimented by age, but instead by ability.

Why should schools be mandatory if they do not teach now as it is? Look at what has happened to the standard. In order to accommodate mentally challenged young adults who now have a "right" to graduate high-school, we have dropped the standard for receiving a high-school diploma to a pathetically low level. This will continue as you force the less intelligent to stay in school, or the un-motivated. By lowering the standard of education to meet the needs of the slowest kid in class, you deny a real education to those bright young individuals who want and deserve one.

I have an even better idea. Let�s just hang diplomas on the big toe of every child that is born along with the birth certificate, that way we can all be equal. After all, everybody is equal and deserves an equal education, even if they didn't want it or didn't deserve it, right?

Sure some have made it without the HS diploma/GED, but what was
the era/times and their family's financial status????

I made it, in this era/time and my family is very poor. I grew up in a government housing project in Oregon. Only after I moved out of the house did my parents graduate college and rise above the poverty line, and I have not seen a penny from them since. I pay for my school and my family wellbeing on my own, and ask for nothing I did not earn.

i was educated once..but it took me years to get over it.

I don't agree with a law governing whether kids graduate or not. I believe that all high school students should NOT graduate without passing a basic high school proficiency exam. Why just because they sat in a class until they were 18 are kids considered functioning members of our society? I took the HSPE when I was 16 and passed with flying colors, and so left high school for college which was the best place for me. The one I took is a 4-5 hour test and is more difficult than the GED, and those who pass would have graduated in the top 10 % of their class had they graduated normally. Do you guys know that 50 % of those who graduate probably could not pass the GED, and most students who pass and continue their education still have to retake high school courses in college? Maybe its time to put some guidelines in place that work. Not just wave them into the world because they stayed in school.

Originally posted by goregrinder
In my opinion, no. The people that want to learn, will learn. The people who want to drop out will drop out, and if they aren't allowed, it would just make life that much more miserable for high school kids.

We'll always need ditch diggers.

Amen