hoo ses i nead skool?

    "Why do I need to know this? It's not like anyone cares anyway." were the words a 14-year-old boy said to me when I fought to tutor him in science. Struggling to find an answer, I was speechless, not because of what he said, but the fact that this boy, who has his entire future ahead of him, didn't even want to attempt to do a simple 8th grade science packet. When he was asked what the definition of a "chemical reaction" was, he simply smirked at me and wrote across the blanks, "Boredom."

Well, dear child, you need this for a myriad of reasons:

1. Every school day, 7,000 teenagers become high school dropouts.
2. Many careers require education beyond high school. The material may not be important, but the grades you make on the material gets you into college.
3. By the end of 8th grade, US students are two years behind in math being studied by peers in other countries.
   - 60% of 8th graders can’t read at their grade level, and most won't be able to catch up to the standards.
4. The poverty rate for families headed by dropouts is more than twice that of families headed by high school graduates.
5. President Obama has set as a goal that by 2020 all adult Americans would have completed at least one year of higher education or career training, this making America the chart-topper in college graduates in the world.

How can America convince younger generations to realize education literally makes or breaks your future? In some cases, a person can get a lucky break and invent something the whole world needs; strike it rich. But, the odds of that are very slim. Some parents may depend on their son/daughter to become wealthy, in hopes of living through them or uh, living with them.


In order to cease this absurd carelessness among young teens and elementary students, the drop out age has to be raised to 18 years old, nationwide. The law has been passed in 13 states, including Washington DC. Some other states have raised the age to 17 instead of 16. Those states have seen an improvement in their graduation rates. If the rates are improving, what's the hold up?

Truth be told, school can be hard and it is stressful! We've all been there, yes? Those projects you wait until the last minute to do or that research project you thought you knew everything about, when you really know nothing. I, personally have even wanted to just give up, but I knew my future was more important. Trying to convince everyone else of that same value is the challenge.