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Skipping Grades
Skipping High School, Graduating College:

Skipping a class, being advanced a grade or putting back a grade, we have all heard of, but is it possible for a person to skip a complete section of our educational system and still graduate from a Junior College with an AA degree? I am about to tell you how Jack Slate did just that.

Jack was not a stupid kid, nor was he the shiniest spoon in the drawer. He didn't care for school. Everyone said that they would play checkers on his report card, except there wasn't enough black marks. After a grueling fight to finish the first seven grades, with only one hold back Jack finely made it into the eighth grade. With his I'd rather be fishing attitude, Jack missed a lot of classes. He knew that graduating out of the eighth grade was not going to be written in his life story. Jack became a drop out at the age of fourteen.

Jack's parents sent him to live on his uncles farm. If he wouldn't go to school, he had to go to work. Jack liked farm work and stayed in Wisconsin until he reached the age of eighteen. At this time he wanted to see more of the United States. Off to California he went. He landed a fair wage job at an aircraft company. He had to lie about his education. Assuming that his background was never checked, Jack was employed there until after his two year hitch in the Army was over. Then back to the aircraft company.

The following two years found Jack married. He wanted to better his life, so he signed up for a home study course to get his high school diploma. He chose his elective subject to be automobile technology. Sadly, this fell by the wayside when he took his wife and son to Wisconsin. Back to his uncle's farm. Jack found a job in a wire factory making screens for gravel pits. Seven years and a set of twins later, Jack began dreaming of something better for them all. He was not going to work here all his life. He wanted to be an automobile mechanic. He knew that it would take an education to get into that field.

In the seventy's Jack enrolled in a junior college in the state of California. He lied about where the high school he attended was located. Jack was accepted to go for his Associates in Arts degree in automotive technology.

Jack found that for the most parts, the studies covered most of what he had learned in grade school. That which came harder, Jack worked harder to remember. He studied hard for two years and passed. He received his diploma. Jack went on to work as an automotive technician for a prominent company. Within a year he was the working foreman.

This true story, shows how education is both a must for success and yet is not foolproof. A person can, as they say, slip through the cracks.

Learn more about this author, Donald Courtney.
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