Today I shared with my classes these statistics about high school dropouts.
*Dropouts earn about $200,000 less than high school graduates.
*50 kids dropout every hour.
*Dropouts are 72% more likely to be unemployed.
*Our Texas state prison is host to 2/3 of state dropouts.
*90% of Texas' state prison inmates are dropouts at a cost of approximately $25,000 per year, per inmate.
*Dropouts make up nearly half of the head-of-households on welfare.
I didn't research these statistics. I received them from my training the other day and thought it would make a nice warm up. For each class but one we ended up taking the whole class to discuss them. I actually asked them 5 questions about the material and we kinda used that as our starting ground.
1. What is your first thought after reading this?
2. Why do you think the dropout rate is so large?
3. What do you think the lawmakers, school officials, state and city officials, and teachers can do to help reduce the numbers?
4. What can you as a student do to help yourself and your classmates graduate from high school?
5. Why do you think I shared these facts with you?
It was a very interesting conversation and I hope that I sparked at least one kid to understand that they have the power to make the decision to stay in school. I also told them a story about one of my friends from high school who dropped out senior year and decided to go back and then started doing the same things again and died in a car wreck almost half way through the second semester of his repeat senior year. The class went silent and some of those kids got the AH HA! look on their faces. Others talked about how getting involved helps and that if someone cares it helps. I also shared my mother's wisdom about making "wise choices. You can never go backwards, you can only go forwards."
I would like to say that it was a successful lesson/class discussion, but unfortunately my 7th period class.... my "awful" class.... couldn't get control of themselves and wouldn't be serious long enough for anyone to hear anyone elses ideas. I feel like they are the class that needs to know the most that someone cares and that they can do it and they won't even open up their minds to it. These are the students that I have a mission to reach... even if it is an impossible one.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Coach B, I know you have a mission to reach that 7th period. I admire it greatly. I want to remind you, though, that you did reach a LOT of kids w/ this discussion. One of the amazing things about you is that you're so idealistic. You want every kid to be successful, every kid to make it. You keep wanting that, girl. But remember... even if not every single one makes it, you ARE doing your part. You ARE making a difference. That conversation could come back to someone in 7th period 5 years from now. You never know. Just keep on teaching, and being yourself, and keeping your goals close to your heart. And please, PLEASE, make sure you take some time for yourself now and then. Here's a statistic for YOU: Most teachers new to the profession nowadays last less than 5 years. 5 YEARS. That's all. And I know it's mostly because of burnout. Be good to yourself, so you can be good to them.
thank you... after today especially, i needed to hear that. i gave my 7th period class some strict guidelines today and they came through and followed them. i was so happy for them... and me.... whew!
Post a Comment