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HappySqurriel on 04 December 2011
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Kasz216 said:


I read recently that statistically if you are in the lowest quntile you need to do 3 main things to have over a 70% chance of leaving that group.

Graduate Highschool, Avoid Teen Pregnancy and get a job out of highschool.

So really, if we were to start anywhere, those three areas would be the ones to target.

Likely by totally rehualing the highschool system, putting more out there about just how badly teen preganancy can screw you up and loosening IPO laws.


Even though I'm uncertain of how big of a problem this is in the American school system, I know in the Canadian school system a lot of high-school drop-outs are children who were let-down by the primary education system ...

The skills that are developed at earlier grades in a single subject are used at higher grades across all subjects. Without a strong understanding of reading, writing and arithmetic most high-school subjects are simply impossible to learn; or, at least, it becomes nearly impossible to demonstrate that you have learned the material in these subjects.

When you have a large population of your students who can't read and struggle to do arithmetic at a grade 4 level even though they're in the later years of high-school there is little you can do to "save" them.

In my opinion the entire school system needs to be overhauled to ensure that grade level competency is achieved before a student moves onto the next grade; and teachers who cannot take the vast majority of their students from being competent with the previous grade’s material to being competent with the current grade’s material in one year should be let go.

Edit: I just wanted to add that the destruction of the family unit in many poor communities does more to cause the three problems that these children have to prevent ...

Both of my grandfathers were working class men and, while they were sweet grandfathers, I have little doubt that any teen boy that got near to their daughters would fear for their lives, both of my parents were excellent students (for fear of crossing these men), and these men certainly pushed forward a work eithic that has served my parents well.

I'm not sure family units made up of single mothers on welfare have quite the same impact ...