Wednesday, July 30, 2003

More Dropout Stories

Defending Dropping Out of School
I linked to the precursor to this article a few weeks ago, and the author has followed it up with some personal success stories of kids who dropped out of high school. I don't include these as proof that more kids should drop out, but as a starting point for understanding why students want to leave in the first place:
Craig M. Murphy, now an army combat medic, got his GED a week after he dropped out at age 16. By this June, just as his high school classmates were graduating, he already had 48 college credits. "Many of our troubled students are troubled because they think," he said. "High school asks them to memorize. They want to think and form opinions, not regurgitate dates and numbers on tests."
Many states are now talking about raising the mandatory school age to 18, just as the push for more high-stakes testing gathers steam. Seems like a recipe for disaster...

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