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Should High School Graduation be Mandatory?
TheCollegeConservative ^ | 02/06/2012 | William McMahon

Posted on 02/06/2012 5:01:12 PM PST by gabriellah

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To: gabriellah
Must government micromanage every single aspect of every persons life? Must government mandate every decession we make? I think the whole concept of trying to make every student college ready is insane. For that matter I think beginning in the ninth grade schools should divide into two separate directions. One direction is needed for for Voc/Tech and the other direction for college prep with classes focused accordingly. End the mandatory four years of high school English and focus on what skills they will need to function in a job.

I also believe apprenticeships should be used again in place of high school VOC/Tech classes if possible. Let a kid learn their trade or better yet trades through OJT. Most of all I believe the feral {no I did not misspell federal LOL} government should get out of regulation of education all together.

21 posted on 02/06/2012 5:37:23 PM PST by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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To: basil

We can easily say you have to stay in school until 18 but those that aren’t college material get trade school. At 15 or 16, girls who aren’t cut for calculus start learning cooking or childcare or electronic assembly or hair dressing or one year nursing assistant programs. Boys who would otherwise drop out learn drafting, plumbing, electrical work, pest control, carpentry, basic computer maintenance.
Kids get an education to be productive upon adulthood. And if they hit 18 and don’t like the career they picked at 16, they can choose to go to junior college on their own dime, as is their right now.


22 posted on 02/06/2012 5:37:30 PM PST by tbw2
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To: gabriellah

Don’t outlaw homeschooling. Privatize all education.


23 posted on 02/06/2012 5:38:07 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: gabriellah
Mandatory graduation? That will make a high school diploma almost worthless. The education system of passing kids to the next grade when they haven't learned to read at that level just handicaps them in the next grade.

Put the kids that can't read or write or hack school into trade schools and industrial training. Maybe if some kids see their future as janitors or dishwashers they'll think about their education a little more. A lot won't but, that's life.

24 posted on 02/06/2012 5:40:30 PM PST by Harley (Will Rogers never met Harry Reid.)
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To: gabriellah

We already graduate functional illiterates in the name of affirmative action.


25 posted on 02/06/2012 5:44:33 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (FOREIGN AID: A transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries)
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He didn't donate

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26 posted on 02/06/2012 5:45:26 PM PST by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list)
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To: cripplecreek
Thnx for the link, checked it out.

It's great for motivated families. Likely very cost efficient too.

It definitely solves the behavioral issues in the modern classroom where all are mainstreamed (which finally drove my wife to retire from a school near you).

Tracking the actively interested learners from the gotta-be-there's is a huge efficiency, but not part of no child left behind (aka no children out on point).

27 posted on 02/06/2012 5:55:56 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: momtothree
My dad dropped out and joined the Navy right as WW2 ended. When he got out he got a G.E.D. and a 45 year career at Ma Bell. However while in the Navy he did so well on his testing that they sent him to Fire Control Technican School. That involved back then doing very complex math. My dad had just gotten bored with school.

I did finish high school. I remember when I got too my ship after basic training running into several classmates from high school that dropped out in their sophmore or junior year LOL. That was 36 years ago. They still did OK for themselves in the long run though.

28 posted on 02/06/2012 5:58:27 PM PST by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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To: gabriellah
Two things:

1. A Federal Mandate to attend school until the age of 18? Do these people have no boundaries in how far they will go to look stupid?

2. Speaking of stupid, about a third of the kids in America are not smart enough to ever pass a GED test. Ever. Lots of them can work with their hands, their back...and some very brain challenging tasks too...but they'll never pass a math test or English Comprehension test.

We need to bring back Metal Shop, Wood Shop and Auto Shop. FFA. Any and all sundry variety of education in the trades.

The idea that every kid can learn book learnin' is ludicrous on it's face, much less every kid needs to go to college!

I've met a couple of teachers and of course they have a college degree...dumb as rocks. Can't perform simple calculations in their head and are equally challenged with the written and spoken word.

29 posted on 02/06/2012 6:08:42 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: gabriellah

The President doesn’t have the Constitutional authority to make such a mandate. Nor did Carter have any authority to create a Dept. of Education. And sorry to say on the Gipper’s B-Day, (The best Pres in my lifetime) but Reagan missed a prime opportunity to get rid of this beast during both his terms. In fact he aided it.


30 posted on 02/06/2012 6:10:40 PM PST by uptoolate (Republican's sure do like their liberalism)
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To: Paladin2

“Voting against rats should be mandatory.” Amen, Amen, Amen!


31 posted on 02/06/2012 6:11:48 PM PST by taterjay
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To: Mariner

I suck at math on paper but if you put it in the real world I’m fine. I’ll never be a rocket scientist but I made a damn fine factory foreman.


32 posted on 02/06/2012 6:15:26 PM PST by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: Mariner
In high school I took what was basic and remedial courses in Math, Science, English, and History. That was in the early 1970’s. My junior and senior year I took a vocational course in refrigeration and basic electricity. My senior year I actually worked full time 8-5 in a car A/C repair shop. I did car heating and air repairs. I was also drawing a decent pay check.

By the next fall I was in the Navy and worked on the carriers large chill water A/C units and walk in refrigerators. When I got out I went to VOC/Tech twice. Once was for more refrigeration training and then I tool an industrial wiring course afterward.

Even though I had to retire medically at age 36 I had learned several trades. While in school I worked at a V.A. cemetery and learned some basic tractor/front end loader operations. I was also in the national guards at that time and took an interest too truck driving. So I took a commercial driving course and drove an 18 wheeler till till my other field opened up and the early 1980’s recession ended. I worked as a clerk a few months.

Last job I was a maintenance mechanic on a 50 acre health care facility. Duties there included boiler operation, HVAC operator/mechanic, Electrician. Plumber, and carpenter. My specialties were the HVAC and all electrical trouble shooting repairs etc.

The ability too learn jobs fast despite learning issues I had with book studies kept me in work and made it easier for me to find other work when a job ended due too economics. I have my high school diploma. Could I pass the G.E.D. today? No. Do I have a higher quality education than many graduating today? Likely so. The basics stuck with me. Kids are not learning the basics today. They are learning only too take test.

33 posted on 02/06/2012 7:46:10 PM PST by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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To: cripplecreek
Should high school graduation be mandatory?

No.

Mandatory education, if it exists at all, should end after eighth grade.

High school should be both voluntary and conditional on good behavior and satisfactory progress towards a diploma.

34 posted on 02/06/2012 7:50:27 PM PST by Jim Noble ("The Germans: At your feet, or at your throat" - Winston Churchill)
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To: Jim Noble
>”Mandatory education, if it exists at all, should end after eighth grade”<

You got that right. If it was good enough for Jethro Bodine, it's good enough for the entire country.

Remember, Jethro had a multifaceted career. He was an Actor, a Playboy, a Banker, a Doctor, a Lawyer, a Casting Agent, the list goes on and on.

35 posted on 02/06/2012 8:13:30 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Liberals, Useful Idiots Voting for Useless Idiots...)
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To: Kickass Conservative
Jethro was an exaggerated character written into a TV comedy script. My first wife's dad could tear down and repair anything from a VW too a 671 Detroit Diesel powered tractor trailer. He was a Master Mechanic and worked for the largest truck leasing company in the country before retirement. His last grade of completion? I think he said 8th grade. He begin rebuilding bicycles as a kid and worked up. He was also a good carpenter. Somewhere along the way he did an Honorable four year hitch as a member of the USMC as well.

But then again some college professors lack enough common sense too drive themselves too and from campus. They can't quite grasp the concept of how to operate a motor vehicle nor traffic flow etc.

There was also this other man who was a drop out. His name was Dave Thomas. The man who founded Wendy's. Thomas later in life stated dropping out was a mistake. I think it may not have been quite true for him in his case. His dropping out is what lead him too meeting and working for a very important person. His idea for the square burger likely came when he was 12 years old working in Knoxville, Tennessee for the Regas Brothers at an upscale restaurant.

About a block away from their restaurant was a fast food burger place at the time either called Blue Circle or Krystal but I'm almost certain it was Blue Circle. Hard to remember back 40 years. But I do remember both places. Blue Circle has been gone since the early 70's and Regas closed down a couple years ago. The burger joint though served a square burger similar to Krystal and White Castle. He lived in Knoxville likely a couple of years.

Later at about age 16 close to the age he dropped out he met Harland Sanders the founder of KFC. Sanders took him under his wing and later Thomas used his gained knowledge from the Regas Brothers and Sanders to launch his own chain. Had Thomas not dropped out? He likely would have never met Sanders. Thomas dropped out of high school because his parents were moving too another city and he wished to remain where they were living according to his Bio. But had he not stayed he may not have met Sanders and gained Sanders knowledge and influence. Thomas may have never been who he was.

Many persons mistake dropping out of school as the end of learning and that simply is not true. By the eighth grade though unless a person is college bound they likely have acquired most of the basic PRACTICAL knowledge that our education system can provide that they will actually need anyway. There needs to be some practical, realistic, & suitable alternatives to three R's high school. That alone would lower the drop out rate considerably in itself.

36 posted on 02/06/2012 9:18:10 PM PST by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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To: cva66snipe
If I may, I was joking around. Didn't intend to offend any of my fellow FReepers.

About a year ago I found out my Father never finished High School. He's 88 and he never mentioned it.

That being said, he served in the U.S. Navy in WWII. He went to Trade School on the G.I. Bill after the War and started an Automotive Repair Business with his Brother. He raised a Family and had many jobs in the Automotive field after he sold the business. He Retired when he was 75 or so.

An Education is only as good as the person who achieved it.

37 posted on 02/06/2012 9:56:15 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Liberals, Useful Idiots Voting for Useless Idiots...)
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To: cva66snipe
If I may, I was joking around. Didn't intend to offend any of my fellow FReepers.

About a year ago I found out my Father never finished High School. He's 88 and he never mentioned it.

That being said, he served in the U.S. Navy in WWII. He went to Trade School on the G.I. Bill after the War and started an Automotive Repair Business with his Brother. He raised a Family and had many jobs in the Automotive field after he sold the business. He Retired when he was 75 or so.

An Education is only as good as the person who achieved it.

38 posted on 02/06/2012 10:00:24 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Liberals, Useful Idiots Voting for Useless Idiots...)
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To: gabriellah

A few years ago, I was talking to the retiring high school principal of my local district.

When asked what the biggest mistake he saw during his many years running the school, he said that moving the dropout age to 18 was the worst.

His view was that many kids dropped out at 16 and experienced just how bad life would be for them before they reached adulthood. More than half came back to school and studied with renewed vigor and usually graduated. Another group would come back and request transcripts so they could start GED programs. He figured that less than 20 percent of dropouts never got a degree.

Once they couldn’t drop out at 16, they would spend two destructive years in school, usually truant, and racking up suspensions and expulsions when they were forced to attend. Once they reached 18, they still dropped out and the number of former students who got diplomas was far smaller. Dropouts were gone and often heading down a very bad path.


39 posted on 02/06/2012 10:05:03 PM PST by MediaMole
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To: Kickass Conservative

Ooops sorry about that.. LOL.


40 posted on 02/07/2012 12:35:35 AM PST by cva66snipe (Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?)
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