What if a class started out with 350 kids in preschool, but by the time this class graduated, they were down to around 125? That means they lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 kids in less than fourteen years. How would that make you feel if you were a part of this class? How many friends would you have lost, maybe even kids you didn 't know that well, but that you sat by during lunch or had a conversation about an essay that was due the next day. Now all the sudden they are just gone, dropped out, out of school and on the streets. Now it could be even soon as the senators are pushing to make the age that students can legally leave school from sixteen to fourteen, just to improve end of year test scores by a few points.
Now in short term views, this may sound like a good plan. You could bump up test scores a few points which would make your school seem better. It would also get the troubled teens out of the school earlier. They wouldn 't be creating a hassle for the teachers and students anymore. It would be easier than keeping those troubled teens in detention or passing them along from teacher to teacher. That would be a good thing right? Wrong! In this essay I will tell you a few of the reasons why I believe students should stay in school as long as possible.
One reason that I have for the age of leaving the age for dropping out at sixteen has to do with what these kids do when they drop out. According to www.dosomething.org approximately 1.2 million kids drop