The USA is no place to raise a child.

Simple, you take them out of highschool and make sure they go to the library every day to prepare for their GED exam.

 

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But how would they know what to study? How would anyone (their parents mostly) know that they even comprehend what they read? If that were left to me I would never have left the literature section

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Ok, maybe a little to read a little about artists and their movements. I would have avoided math, the sciences etc. It took dedicated teachers to gude me in those areas and to show me how they were useful.

 

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Use the internet, find out whats on the GED. Get one of those GED practice test programs, and live in the library.

Also just because you liked just one section of the library it doesnt mean the average kid wouldn't choose to study specific materials so they can skip the 4 years it takes to graduate highschool. Imagine if you had the option to graduate at 16, all you had to do is pass the GED exam and then go straight to community college, rather than waste 4 years in highschool. I'm making the case that one year of very dedicated study in a library can equal 4 years of study at a crappy school. The only thing you might need a tutor for is math. Math is the one subject I struggle with even today, so aside from algebra you can buy a book and read. You can learn all your history, you can learn your writing skills by actually reading and writing even if you write editorials for a website or write short stories on your blog. You can learn science by experimenting on your own if you have good books. And you don't really need to know a whole lot to pass the GED exam.

I'm not trying to say passing any exam will be easy, but if you apply yourself and you are completely dedicated to the task eventually it will get done and it wont take 4 years.

 

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You're just jaded, if all you see is the bad in people. I actually have the completely opposite biased view. I think there is more good in people than bad. And even terrible rotten people have their moments of kind heartedness as well (few and far between as they may be). As much as I would have loved to enter college at 12 academically speaking, I would have missed out on a whole lot of the social development and maturity college students possess over 7th graders.

 

Because all high school students are that mature and dedicated. If they dropped out in the first place they're probably the complete opposite. Most of them having a school sucks and I don't need an education attitude, I make plenty of money working at the store. They don't think about a GED until they can't get a job anywhere without one. Even working full time at a fast food restaurant they want you to have a diploma. It's not the BAR, passing the GED exam would be exceedingly easy if the student actually dropped out of school because they thought they were too smart for high school.

When I was at a school that I wasn't really learning anything from because they moved to slow for me, my mother put me in another school. and I got to go to a school where other kids were accelerated learners like myself out of the 8 schools I went too before graduating I felt the most challenged there.

 

Thats not what I said though. I said I've been around good and evil people, and that both are equally rare. I said the majority of people are ugly people, which is neither good nor evil, just disgusting in general.

And nobody said entering college at 12, I was talking about entering at 16, which is much more realistic. I don't see how its good for anyone to enter college at 12 developmentally or otherwise. Whats the rush? As far as social development goes, yes of course I'm jaded, thats the result of social development for most people. You cannot be around a lot of people for a long time and not end up jaded, and if you are still naive after being around a lot of people then you just arent street smart and you will be used your entire life by people until you are all used up.

 

I don't have the solution for everyone. They have to want to better themselves for any solution to work. If they drop out, when they try to find a job they quickly learn that they need their GED and if they are smart they'll become dedicated, if not they'll be miserable for the rest of their life working at Walmart.

You have to understand that the kids you are talking about who aren't dedicated are usually spoiled kids who grew up sheltered in the suburbs protected all their life by mommy and daddy. If they have to grow up in the bad neighborhood, then they certainly want out of it and they all know Walmart or working at a store or Mc Donalds is not going to get them out. These kids who want out, you can reach them by showing them how an education can get them a better life, but the main problem right now and why these kids are hard to reach is because an education doesn't get them out anymore.

You can have a degree and still be poor, without a job, or live in a bad neighborhood. A lot of students give up not because they aren't capable of hard work and dedication, they give up because they don't see education as a way out of whatever way of life they are in. They see education as a waste of their time, and adults in society seem to only verify this when you see many adults who have degrees who only make $30,000 a year salary.

A bachelors degree doesn't mean much anymore. It's also self esteem, a lot of kids grow up in broken homes without fathers around, or they grow up and the media gets to them and they never develop a self esteem, so they don't believe in themselves. They need to understand that if you don't believe in yourself at as a minimum, nobody will ever believe in you. It has to start within them and then their confidence has to be reflected outward, and school doesn't teach self esteem, confidence, or any of the skills you think it teaches, in fact school teaches the opposite to most kids. Conformity, lowered self esteem and confidence due to teasing, or bad grades, whatever the situation may be that is causing students to drop out, it's mainly a psychological side effect of the environment they grow up in, what they watch on TV, who their friends are, and where they go to school.

 

If they were smart they wouldn't have dropped out in the first place. Graduating from high school is much easier than all of the rigmarole you have to go through with a GED, plus it isn't valid until you're 18 anyway. If you're a minor you have to meet certain special circumstances. The age minimum varies from state to state, from 16 (I don't know what state allows 16 year olds to take the tests without meeting any special requirements and without their parents permission, but there must be one because it was mentioned) to 19 in Ohio. Here in CA I could drop out a 16 wait an entire year to take the test when I would finally be old enough, and if I pass they won't give it to me until my 18th birthday. I would have been long done with high school by then. But we all make stupid decisions in life. If you hate school the best thing to do would be work your ass off every summer and graduate two years early at 15 or 16. That's what my father did. But being the overachiever that I was even I wasn't that dedicated.

 

That depends on what school you are going to. If the school isn't teaching you anything, why waste 4 years? And you do need parents permission to take the test, but so what? I see no point in making someone wait until they are 18, thats artificially slowing people down and thats the problem with our schools, we slow the pace down artificially and that doesnt help anyone.

 

Yeah you could *gasp* go to another school. Even you yourself said that 16 year olds should drop out and go to college, but that's still two years spent in high school. There is nothing slowing you down, you can graduate as soon as you finish your coursework. So if you want out as soon as possible then summer school it and take night or weekend classes at community college then you're out in two years instead of four. Most kids aren't that dedicated and probably want to graduate with their friends, so they don't bother, but there is nothing stopping them. When there is a will, there's a way.

 

They weren't even giving kids that option when I went to school. Sure if you go to a really good school you have better options but if you don't go to school at all you make your own options. To each his own.

 

It looks as if though things are bad they are not lost:

While they're not in first place, U.S. students generally hold their own on international tests. They spend more time in school than the Obama administration would have you believe. And their college graduation rates stack up better than reported. That is not to say the critics are totally wet, that the U.S. can't do better.
Only about one-third of U.S. students could read and do math at current grade levels on national tests in 2007, the most recent figures available. That means millions of kids are a long way from reaching the ambitious goal of former President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law — that every student read and do math on grade level by 2014. And the high school dropout rate is dismal — 1 in 4 kids."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090518/ap_on_re_us/us_education_trash_talk

Maybe its keeping kids in school that's the issue.

 

i guess people dont always give a fuck about being in first place. especially from armchair windbags who dont know shit. (^)

 

I don't understand. What do you mean?

 

what dont you understand?

 

The bit about armchair windbags? I don't think 1st place is what is important but remaining competitive in a global market. I think its sad that american children find it difficult to stay in school when there is a free education provided and that if they do they are unable to read or do math at grade level. To me that is a more pertinent issue at the moment than how they score on international tests. Everything has to be bolstered from the ground up.

 

you know what that means lucy.

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you are concerned about a country being competitive in a global market?

to be realistic, not every individual is going to agree with a regimented lifestyle nor are they all super competitive enough to be 'driven'. when dealing with a very high number of people from enormously varying backgrounds these issues become very complicate.

 

No actually I really don't know what you mean. If I did I wouldn't have asked so you might as well explain.

Unless they are newly developing, every country would be concerned about remaining competitive.

Every child doesn't need to be an A student nor even academically inclined I agree but the basics should not be an issue and evidently it is. A seventh grader should be able to read at grade level unless they are learning disabilities.

 

lets forget about that because it is no important.

Unless they are newly developing, every country would be concerned about remaining competitive.

it is an issue because it is always an issue.

 

I found this article and its quite interesting. Its a little off topic in that it doesn't deal with basic education but the lack of knowledge americans have on subjects like history and the political system.

"The average American is nearly illiterate when it comes to basic principles of American history, government and economics, according to a new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute – and politicians are even worse."

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=39715

They blame all this on learning theories and teaching methods.

"The culprit is that teachers are steeped in a philosophy called “constructivism.”

“That’s the idea that knowledge is not something that teachers possess and give to students or teach students,” DeMarzio tolld CNSNews.com. “Rather, knowledge is a process in which students construct meaning for themselves.