There has been a lot of discussion lately about how to stop people from dropping out of school. There has even been talk of taking drivers' licences away from people who drop out. I don't agree with this because, as I've mentioned before, I think consequences should be natural and that no good can come of creating artificial consequences. But I also think they're focusing on the wrong part of the process.
Instead of trying to stop people from dropping out, they should let anyone drop out whenever they want, for any reason.
BUT, they should also make it the easiest thing in the world to go back to school.
This means making all public school classes free for anyone. This means making a wide range of classes available day and night, online and correspondence. This means providing guidance services for adults who once dropped out of high school and now wish to go back and finish and then go on to post-secondary education. This means allowing people to get co-op credits for their jobs. This means creating a secondary and post-secondary education model in which students who are above the age of majority are not automatically assumed to have parental support.
The main problem is that the whole "stay in school" initiative is simply not addressing people for whom the very fact of being in school is a hardship or is logistically difficult. This simply perpetuates the notion that education is a trial, a punishment, thoroughly unpleasant. Instead it should be accessible, perfectly feasible, something you can fit easily into your life, a pleasure or a stepping stone, not a jail sentence.
No comments:
Post a Comment