Barely half — a mere 52 percent — of students in America’s 50 most populous metropolitan areas graduated in the 2003-04 school year, according to the Department of Education.
Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and founding chairman of the America’s Promise Alliance, called the situation “not just a crisis; this is a catastrophe.”
Here’s one factor that has proven helpful to keeping youths in school longer: abstinence education. Studies show abstinent teens report, on average, better psychological well-being and higher academic achievement than those who are sexually active.
As the data below show, sexually active teens are more likely to drop out of high school and not pursue college than are those who wait.
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1 commentHow in the hell do people survive without a high school diploma?
I have a BSEE and 20 years of experience. I worked my way through college with no help from my family. I still have to drive old cars and change my own oil and brakes. We have never taken a trip to the Bahamas or Disney World. We have no college savings for our kids. Statistically I am in the top 20 percent or higher in wage earners in America and still live on a tight budget.
These dumb kids that are dropping out of school have no idea what a hard life they have brought upon themselves by taking what seemed the easy way out.
Often when we drive by a run down trailer park I ask my three teen age kids the rhetorical "How many people living there do you think graduated from college?"
They all three of them are wanting to go to college. Am I using manipulation and mind games on them? Probably, but that's what good parenting involves sometimes.
I wish some one would have done the same to this year's crop of drop outs and so will they some day.
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