© 2021 Robert W McBride, LCSW
Wasting A Valuable Resource
We all are aware that children are born into circumstances and surroundings for which they have little control. Most of the time children grow and arrive into adulthood reasonable well developed.
However, there are situations in which circumstances
and surroundings can diminish or damage the
development of young individuals. Developmental
injuries caused by poverty, marginalization, broken
families, multiple living arrangements, health issues,
abandonment, neglect, and sexual, physical and
emotional abuse.
The public school system was not designed to handle or resolve the social or personal issues of a particular family that affects a particular child.
The public school system is "task and rule" directed. A system that works well for many however is difficult for traumatized and insecurely attached students to process and navigate. Even though many young people dealing with difficult circumstances and surroundings are able to manage their situations and graduate high school, each year there continue to be millions of young people who are overwhelmed by their plight and are unable to complete their education.
The student stories in this presentation demonstrate some of the situations faced by these young people.
The so called “dropout” population reportedly costs our nation, as the following data indicates, trillions of dollars each year in lost production, criminal activities, and welfare. The personal and financial cost to individuals who do not complete a high school education or equivalent is substantial. The burden of this cost is shared with everybody in our country.
According to The New York Times article of October 2009, researchers at Northeastern University found that the cost to the country for each individual dropout over their working lifetime is $292,000. This figure includes lost tax revenues, providing assistance such as, food stamps and medical aid, and the cost of imprisonment for those who commit crimes. Almost 10% of high school dropouts are incarcerated. For black males dropouts, the incarcerated rate was nearly 25%. The Stanford Graduate School of Education reports that nationally 68% of all males in prison do not have a high school diploma.
The National Dropout Prevention Center and others report a wide ranging list of reasons why individuals leave high school. Some reasons given by our students were; missing too many school days, not keeping up with school work and getting poor grades. Others did not like school because they could not get along with teachers or other students or did not feel safe. While others had to get jobs to help support the family or to help take care of a family member. Often these young people express feelings of depression and anxiety because of the disturbing problems in their families.
It has been reported recently, students have been asked or told to leave a particular public high school because their attendance or grades hurt the school's statistics and status. This is apparently not uncommon for schools throughout America. These young people have grown up frequently hearing messages such as “you're worthless” or “you're too stupid to succeed” or “you're a burden we don't care about you.” Since no one is listening to their needs, they stop showing up all together and disappear from the system.
Colorado Youth for a Change (CYC) started one of the first programs in the U.S. to actively track out-of-school youth in a systematic way and give them a second chance at education. The Re-engagement Program engages youth who have already left high school. To assist in this process, the re-engagement team contacts students that have left school and educates them on the importance of a high school diploma, offers information on school and GED programs and helps with the enrollment process. Re-engagement staff members continue to support youth for an entire year after re-enrollment to promote accountability and in-school advocacy. Futures Academy grew out of this effort, which will be discussed later.
Given a path to follow and the support to stay on that path, many young people will re-engage in their education. Futures Academy was created to understand and address these problems. It provided a path and the support for young people to achieve not only their General Education Development (GED) certificate but also a path to enter post-secondary education.
From a humanistic point of view it would be better to find ways to help these kids achieve rather than face limited possibilities and outcomes in life. It also makes sense from a practical point of view, as it is far less expensive to educate this group than incurring the resulting costs to society, over their lifetime, of not educating them.
As a national effort, we need to create a similar opportunities and attitudes throughout the academic world of America.
*The next presentation discusses "Student Profiles--Labeling" who attended Futures Academy.
