by Ann Palmieri

Created on: September 18, 2008

As a retired teacher, having shared my life with young people, I feel that keeping students in school is one of the main issues in education. Students need to learn to maintain good attendance, good discipline, good work habits, good study habits, and good communication. Today's world is too lenient with school issues, and it is showing in our drop-out rates, school crime, and rebellious, lazy, young people.

Keeping a child in school until the age of 18 will keep them off the streets. It will keep them from running to those low-paying jobs, street gangs, and baby-making drug parties. This sounds a little harsh, but it's the truth. I live in Florida and we continue to let our children drop out at 16. They don't know what they want at 16; as parents we are responsible for our children until they are 18. When a parent allows a child to drop out of school, he/she is saying, "Education is not important to me." WOW! Statistics show that people without high school diplomas do not function well in our world. Don't give in to their wants.
They will learn in school just from hearing and watching teachers and students.

By staying in school, a child learns how to discipline himself; he should be encouraged to go to school every day, stay all day, and bring back homework to do. Do not push your student into a job. That is definitely a "killer" for education. Our children want the money, but they also lose sleep and desire to finish school. I know many parents who won't let their child have a car until they can pay for the gas. That is a bit hard; just let the student borrow the family car for dating or going to recreational places. Don't make them pay for the gas. Even if they work, gas is so expensive, they will only want to work more. That leads to the "drop-out" toll.

In school, a child has some control over his appetites; he will not be allowed to makeout with his girlfriend, nor will he be allowed to go off campus and get into trouble. Teachers really care about students and will try almost anything to keep them learning. Encourage your child to read, get into a club at school, volunteer at a service organization, or play some sport. These things tend to keep your child active and involved in school.

If we would reward our children for keeping up good attendance, turning in completed homework assignments, and staying at school all day for all classes, we might win this war against dropouts. We need to take our stand, make our rules stick, and enforce the idea that education is the best medicine for our society. We need to encourage teachers to continue their own education; by doing this, our teachers will learn new menthods of teaching that will motivate our children.

Parents, stand up for education. Praise your children for doing their best and reward them with things they want, like the car on Friday night and a tank of gas. Stop making them earn money. You are in charge of their livelihood, not them. Stand up for yourselves and don't let your children tell you what to do. You are the parent and are responsible for making them good social beings in the community. Don't add more vagrants to our streets by letting them leave school before they are 18.

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