Is Dropping Out of High School Acceptable?

Dropping out of school is not an option for my children and they know it. My oldest graduated and married a girl who dropped out in Feb of her senior year. Now she has a hard time finding a job of any kind except for McDonalds. My son keeps telling her to go and get her GED at least so she can then go to college. I have a son who will be graduating this year. He has no interest to drop out of school. He is looking forward to going and visiting colleges this year. My other 2 children know it is important to get a proper education. They will both finish high school and then go to college.

It's a lot HARDER? That's a new one to me. Seems a lot easier. I've known several brilliant kids who gave up on school because it was too easy for them. I agree with you completely on why school is important. I think the most important things a good school teaches is how to think critically and how to be responsible. Any school should at least teach the latter. I see very few reasons to drop out of school, and both are extremes. First- High school has no benefit and could be becoming detrimental. Kids in urban areas with poor education, and a poor and bankrupt school system often don't benefit from finishing high school as much as they benefit from starting a career in a trade and working up, or something similar. Second- The student is so far beyond the high school level it is rediculous to hold them there. Though in this case they would presumably want to go on to college, and would aim for graduating early rather than just dropping out. I've known a few people who dropped out of school. None of them end up in cozy, middle class jobs. Not to say it isn't possible, and not to say that there's anything wrong with the other jobs. But kids should be aware of what they are REALLY doing when they consider quitting school.

I suppose the high school teachers must be more careful and responsible like the school ones. They leave all thing upto the students and care not much about the students ....in other words they are irresponsible and careless. If strict rules are bounded on the students and strictness is followed and severe punishment without failing is given then no one will even think of doing any wrong things in school or college.

IF I had kids, I'd KILL them if they dropped out.

my son finished high school ,thank god , even received awards. my daughter also is interested in school . studying is a routine they 've accepted because teaching is what i do for a living.i have teenage friends ( bec some time i was active in youth ministry )they are drop outs in the middle of the year and enroll again next year in the same level( they have 4 chances). i think kids drop out bec. they lack decisiveness and determination in what they do. hostile parents also make them choose to do wrong things all the more.i also observed that they seek peer approval even if these peers are bad influence to them. they don't think that they have a fall back , what matters is now , they belong and they can get even w/ their parents as they self-destruct.as their older friend , i still give them an encouraging smile, praise them when i see them in school uniform (for how long this year only them knows)and give them help whenever they ask w/in my means ,of course. sometimes they are demanding bec. they know i've to help as a caring adult.sometimes ,i lost track if they were able to finish that year. i also pray for them to have a change of heart.

You put forth a lot of good questions and points. First of all I can understand you having that fear of your children dropping out of school when they are older. I can say the chance of that becomes much less when the parent gets involved. I believe that it's been proven that a parent who cares about a child's education and is involved with the school even in the littliest ways like helping where they can with homework, going to open-houses, games, or concerts are less likely to have children that drop out. If your way of thinking is "old school" well then maybe old school isn't always wrong. I agree that it teaches what you mentioned. Unfortunately, I've seen it fall short on teaching the actual curriculum at times. I won't go into detail about that, because that would be a whole other discussion board and I would end up rambling on and on. LOL As far as an alternative school. Although it's not my first choice it's better than completely dropping out. For some kids it might be better that the requirements are lower because they just might not be able to handle regular high school. We have about four different education situations we're dealing with here. As far as dropping out or being kicked out of school, we took in a 17 year old boy who was kicked out of high-school. He's planning on getting his GED and attending a trade school to become a mechanic. Not being his parents or legal guardians our hands are tied and we can only hope he follows through with his plans. Our step-sons are home schooled by their mother. Although I am not against home schooling if done properly, I have my doubts about the quality of their education in general. My son has a severe learning disability. He's not enrolled in an alternative school, but is getting a very different high school education than the normal one because of it. Finally, my daughter is in regular highschool and plans on attending college after she graduates.

When I was growing up, I was one of those kids that thought about dropping out well before I even got old enough to actually be able to drop out. I just hated school and hated dealing with the people that went there, I wanted to drop out. Thankfully, I ended up not going through with my plans and I'm just finishing up my last semester of college. I'm waiting for my degree to be written up as we speak. I'm glad I didn't drop out. If I had, I'm not sure I would have gone back and if I had dropped out, I wouldn't really make much out of my life. It's just not possible to really do much of anything anymore without a highschool diploma.

Well if I ever have children I wouldnt want them to drop out of high school becuse I understand the importance of completing your education, and at the very least I would want them to graduate high school, also becuse I've seen first hand how difficult life can be without it. sure a person can always get there GED, but its not really the same as getting a full high school diploma. and I wouldnt want any future I might have, to wake up one day and regret not finishing high school. Now dont get me wrong theres nothing wrong with getting a GED. in fact I applaud those who didnt give up on completing there high school equivalency/education. but you asked if dropping out of high school is acceptable well, for me my answer would be no, but everyone has different views on things especially when comes to education, but as I said I defintly would not want my children to drop out of high school.

I guess each person must choose their path in life, but if my kids dropped out of high school, you can bet it wouldn't be for long. I would personally escort them to school if I had to. I had siblings who dropped out and finished up later with alternative schools and/or GED's. It was fine, they went on to college with no problems, but I would be pretty dang upset if my kids tried to pull that on me.

I think that the worse thing a parent can do is put their children in public education. Why? Because unfortunately public school systems will only teach your children how to work for the boss! Now, with private schools it's a different story, They will grow up and be taught how to make the dollars work for them not the other way around. Why are the rich, rich and the poor and middle class always in debt? Simple! Because the poor and middle class have been brought up have similar ideas when it comes to money like saving and borrowing, They are always in debt. Where the rich wouldn't bother saving money, why would they? The dollar looses value over time! they would rather invest in stocks and bonds. They have been financially educated their entire life. I dropped out of public high school in year 9, and guess what? I'm glad I did because over the past 3 years I haven't put a thing I learned in High School to practice, and have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars online through powerful marketing techniques that the school system would have never taught me.. nor would have further education. One of the richest men in the wold, "Bill Gates" dropped out of High School as well. Just my 2 cents.

I think that if teens intend to drop out of high school, the next step is that they plan to learn a trade, and that they are not planning to Idle. If teens don't do something possitive with their lives they are going to regret it. I don't support the dropping out of hight school thing,but if the dropping out or kicking out happens, they should get themselves involve in something that will affect their lives in a possitive way that will help them in the future.

No, I think that it's important for kids to go through highschool. It's important especially in this day and age for kids to go through highschool. Now whether they go to college on their own is up to them.

In my opinion I believe that finishing High School should be one of the most important things you should do. College is a good thing as well, but in order to get anywhere you should by all mean atleast finish high school.

Princess, It is not acceptable, I think. The teenagers as students, parents, school, government, non government organization, stake holders, and society are the factors which linked and matched for teenagers' education. We whould not shift the responsibility that the drop out because of teen's mentality, or their parents'low income. If the drop out happens, it is only accepted as a stepping stone fact for finding them other alternative education

I finished highschool, but did not go any further. I know of others who did not finish highschool. We are all just fine, and doing what we want in our lives. Formal education is not for everyone, and people will usually do whatever it is that works best for them. The rest of the world needs to respect that.

Not mostly, but I'm in favor of kids who find high school boring and go to college instead. A lot of people here in Massachusetts do that. I'm in favor of that.

i think 40 or 50 years ago, it was ok because people would hire you based on what you did and could do as opposed to now, because they hire you for what you KNOW. here where i live, people are really encouraged to finish highschool for their own sake.

Highschool is the basic of education and I wouldn't want mine to drop out. Sometimes though there are people that are just not "book" kind of people. Their talent is more hands on. This doean't make them problem children..it just makes them the kind of people that have different learning techniques. Certainly at least a GED is required but sometimes they do better to get one and go to a trade school. I guess we all can't be doctors and lawyers. There actually need to be people of trade as well. I have known people to drop out and go on to trade school and make a handsome living.

Well at my school you didn't really have the option of dropping out of school. You have to stay in education untill you are 16 and have taken the GCSE exams. After that you can go into further education at school, college or go to work. I don't see anything wrong with that as there is no point being at school if what you really want to do is work based learning. I didn't find it at my school school but at my younger brother's school there are alot of students who disrupt lessons because they don't want to be there. I think it is nice students get the oppurtunity to eventually what they do and don't want to do so you can concentrate and learn better. For example I left school at 16 while my friends stayed on till they were 18 as I knew I wanted to do art and could go to college and learn it full time. I guess that could be seen as dropping out of school, my friends certainly looked down on me for going to college.

Definitely not! A high school pass is necessary for eeryone who wants to oursue a good career, otherwise they will have to settle for the odd jobs which pay less. In a globalized world, competition is hotting up and with more and more people getting educated and seeking better prospects, high school droputs have little or no chance of a good job.