Dropout Factories
Schools that Specialize in Dropouts
By Daniel Muniz

Researchers at John Hopkins University created quite a sensation when they released a study for the Associated Press about dropout factories. “Dropout factories” are high schools in which at least 40 percent of freshmen do no graduate in four years. So in other words, these kids drop out although some of them are held back a year to be a “freshmore” which is a student who doesn’t have enough credits to be a sophomore.

But what is most appalling about this study is for a high school to have such a huge number of kids who are simply not going to graduate at all, like just underneath half of the student body. In fact, the researchers assert that about 1 in 10 high schools in the nation can be designated as a “dropout factory” because graduation just isn’t in the cards for many of their students. One common characteristic that these schools share is that they are typically in poverty stricken areas with a high concentration of minorities.

As a result, legislators in many states are clamoring for more funding in order to prevent students from dropping out.
 

Story Continues Below ę

Today's Top Stories

● Are You Being Watched? - It is Difficult to Pass Unnoticed ● Teaching Kids at Home - In Defense of Home Schooling ● Preserving Marital Bliss - Good Credit Marrying Bad Credit ● No More Hosiery - Is Pantyhose Losing Its Legs?

Yesterday's Top Stories

● Embracing Liberalism - The Rush to National Suicide ● Billing School Districts - Charging for Remedial Education ● Liberal Ignorance - Receiving Liberal Hate Mail ● Voodoo Panties - Ex-Boyfriend Creates Voodoo Shrine ● Today We March - Tomorrow We Vote! ● Urban Sprawl Rules - Inner Cities Continue Decline

In my hometown of San Antonio Texas, there are 15 such high schools. When I learned which campuses they were, I was surprised to see that throughout the years I personally knew a lot of people who had actually taught at a number of those high schools. I was also acquainted with or used to be good friends with people who also taught at the elementary and middle schools that feed students to those troubled high schools.

Time and time again, nearly all of these educators whom I had known adamantly claimed that money may not necessarily be the solution to this problem. Although money helps, it may very well be the least of their problems.

For tax and spend legislators, such an assertion may seem unfathomable. After all, don’t more taxes solve every social problem? Well, if it were only that simple.

First and foremost, a lot of these kids come from families that don’t value education. In fact, some of these parents don’t think very highly of schooling and they may even feel that teachers are nothing more than babysitters. Next, some of our future dropouts have lousy parents who don’t place any structure whatsoever in the lives of their children. They just let their kids run wild without any rules or restraints.

In the real world, a responsible adult who holds a job knows that he or she has to be in bed at a certain time every night so that they can be at work on time and ready to perform their duties.

School is not any different.

Kids have to be in bed at a certain time every night instead of roaming the streets at all hours of the night. Kids also have to be ready to do their assignments, do their homework, and study for tests in order to pass their classes. But suppose they don’t want to do any work at all and a parent really doesn’t care if assignments are not completed and homework is left unfinished and worst of all, tests are not studied for.

How far is a student really going to get in high school if he or she is a slacker and their parents don’t care otherwise?

In addition, some of these kids show up to the classroom copping attitudes. They are abrasive and downright rude to their teachers and they have absolutely no respect for authority. And worse, there are plenty of parents who behave no differently than their unruly and belligerent offspring. Lots of educators lament the fact that so many parents are out of control and some of them are unwilling to assume any responsibility for the academic performance of their children. They just believe that our education system is supposed to solve all of their children’s problems.

So how is a teacher supposed to provide an education to insolent slackers?

The simple answer is that they cannot. And furthermore, no amount of money is going to prevent a kid from dropping out of high school if parents are not involved in stopping it.

There are some legislators who love to throw money at a problem but they are also the same ones who are terrified at examining the real cultural problems that this country faces. For example, parents have to exercise sound judgment and make good decisions in regards to how they are raising their children. Rules have to be put into place and actually enforced which means assignments have to be finished, homework turned in, tests studied for, and absolutely no skipping out of class. So in other words, absolutely no bad behavior can be tolerated.

Overall, it is too easy for society to blame teachers for dropouts although the educational leadership of these schools also deserves its fair share of criticism for making educators the scapegoat for these problems.

It is time to start focusing the blame on where it should have been all along; success or failure belongs to the parents.

The preparation for education begins right at home and it ends there as well. That means turning off the television set, the video game console, the cell phone, and the computer so that a child can do his or her homework and start studying for tests. It also means shooing off any visitors and keeping your children out of trouble. And this is something that has to be done from first grade all the way until the end of twelfth grade.

Educating a child is an enormous undertaking but a huge part of that responsibility also rests with the parent. It is time for them to step up to the plate and do their part.

This country doesn’t need “dropout factories” but there is little the government can do to stop it unless parents are involved.

We want your opinion! Tell us what you thought about this article. Click the Your Feedback menu item to send us your comments.