Poll: Should kids be allowed to drop out at 16?

[curty129]

No, you should not be allowed at all. People who drop out are fucktarded unless they go to college somehow. Also, more dropouts= more criminals and faux news watchers.

I disagree. Part of the problem with our schools is that there are a bunch of worthless deadbeat kids who are only occupying a seat until they're legally old enough to quit school. I think they should lower the age to drop out of "regular" school to 14, but anyone who drops out is then required to attend a trade school/voc-tech instead until age 18.

When I was growing up, it always seemed like the kids who were the worst seeds in "traditional" classes did just fine when they were in auto shop or culinary arts (and indeed, one of the kids voted "least likely to succeed" at my high school is now a chef serving fine food to and taking copious amounts of money from the kids who once mocked him). Letting them focus on their interests could salvage their teenage years. "Traditional" education isn't for everyone.

Very, very true.
The vocational courses are one hell of a lot better for children who are doing terrible in 'traditional' classes.
I just really really wanted to say because the people I know (That are taking learning support and such) are excelling at the courses they've been taken in the 'culinary arts', horticulture and such.

It also means other people get to spend less time with them (No offence to anyone o.o' Just talking about the people I know.)

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

It goes without saying that the economy needs a working class. We can't all be educated to a university degree. We need people to make shoes and work in fast food chains. Yes, they can drop out. I don't care. They aren't me.

 

[Tinneh]

Sure, if they want to ruin their lives by not getting a High School diploma, let them.

Agreed. I'm not sure about the drop-out laws in Florida, finished high school, starting college, blah, blah, blah.

 

[Nickolai77]

16 is fine. You carn't have people who don't want to learn interfering with people who do want to learn. The ages 16-18 are perticularly important for people wanting to get into university, the last thing they want is interferance from those who don't want to learn. Academic education is not for everyone.

Those who drop out at 16 have a number of options, they can start out with till work and earn some cash, do an apprentiship as say, a cheif, a mechanic or a gardener whilst also working for cash. Or they can do a vocational course in cooking, buisness admin, mechanics etc at a college should they want to get back into education. (This is the case in the UK) Some of them sit off and become a waste of space, others actually do work. The thing is though, that those who sit off would be even less useful if they where still in the education system.

Btw, my grandparents finished education at 14, one went to work as an electrican in a shipyard and the other worked as a clerk in a post office. Even at 14, people can still go and look for jobs.

 

[Aardvark]

I used to work for a guy who's son wanted to leave school the moment he turned 16. His dad said sure, but if he wanted to live under his roof, he had to come work with him. So the son stops going to school and comes to work for his dad. His dad's a brickie, the son was suddenly working 10 hours a day, carting bricks around and building walls. After a week, he decided to go back to school.

I know a few people who dropped out before the end of school. One went on to become a useless layabout, one only dropped out so he could complete a one year course that would cover the last two years of high school, but in a much better environment, and the others have vanished off the face of the goddamn planet.

 

[Lost In The Void]

Sure, if they want to ruin their lives by not getting a High School diploma, let them.

No, you should not be allowed at all. People who drop out are fucktarded unless they go to college somehow. Also, more dropouts= more criminals and faux news watchers.

Both these posts are very narrow minded and short sighted. I myself just graduated last year and am in first year college. Now my brother, who is about to turn 16, has for all intents and purposes, has dropped out of school due to the stress of the teachers in my school. This, coupled with learning disorders that fill a god damned page, make it hard for him to learn and as a result there is no point in him wasting his time there. What he wants to do is take a few years off, maybe upgrade when he's older and can cope better. Now I'm also not saying my brother is stupid. He does magic with mechanics, and can fix things in a car that I don't even know exist. he also knows farming and farm equipment like the back of his hand. Now look at this, I have my academic route of college than moving to a law degree, he has mechanics and farming, both of which have potential to make huge cash, especially in Alberta. That leads me to my final question: Is it the guy with the college degree who grows the food you eat, or the livestock you consume, where does it come from, and for the love of God don't say the supermarket. I swear if I hear that again....

 

[MelziGurl]

You're not allowed to drop out of school here unless you have alternative fulltime studies or a fulltime job. My opinion, no I don't think kids should be given an option of just dropping out with no job or career prospects in mind.

 

[Svenparty]

Depends on your situation: Laziness is no excuse but Mental Illness/Unable to cope with things is okay.

 

[Mikaze]

It's been said many times, and I'm going to say it again because I can, I think you should be allowed to drop out of regular schooling at 16 as long as you have an apprenticeship or similar thing already prepared.

Basically you have to continue your education but you don't have to do it in the school system.

 

[PredatorKing]

I have an idea. Let people drop out at 16, but to do so they have to agree to a vasectomy. Gets people who don't want to be in school out of it and helps prevent the world from becoming Idiocracy.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

In the UK you can join the military at age 16. So I think that the compulsory age for school should be 16 provided you join the military and get A-Levels or equivalent whilst in the military, or else you stay in school until 18. We have too many people dropping out at 16 and either scrounging off the state or trying to get a job and failing because they're too young. Every UK child should have to stay on unless they join the Armed Forces. That's my view for the UK, anyway. As far as other countries go, I'm not getting involved in a debate with people from those countries.

What, so most people I know don't get free money (EMA) for the sake of it?

What about those who don't do well in academic studies? It would be better for them to start training whilst they're younger. Tonnes of proffessions need training regardless of age.

Having good/decent grades does help, but for some, keeping them in school/college does more harm than good.

 

[Trivun]

In the UK you can join the military at age 16. So I think that the compulsory age for school should be 16 provided you join the military and get A-Levels or equivalent whilst in the military, or else you stay in school until 18. We have too many people dropping out at 16 and either scrounging off the state or trying to get a job and failing because they're too young. Every UK child should have to stay on unless they join the Armed Forces. That's my view for the UK, anyway. As far as other countries go, I'm not getting involved in a debate with people from those countries.

What, so most people I know don't get free money (EMA) for the sake of it?

What about those who don't do well in academic studies? It would be better for them to start training whilst they're younger. Tonnes of proffessions need training regardless of age.

Having good/decent grades does help, but for some, keeping them in school/college does more harm than good.

I said A-Levels or equivalent. That includes training, NVQs and the like, or Apprenticeships. Either way, even if they're working, they should still have some form of education until they're 18, this doesn't have to be academic but still needs to get them some sort of qualification. The alternative is just loads of people leaving school at 16 unqualified and scrounging, as I said, off the state. And as for the EMA, you get that for being in higher education, but at least you're still being educated. And it's hardly scrounging if you're actually doing something like being educated. What I meant by scrounging is people sitting at home claiming unemployment benefits and not bothering to look for work, and situations like that.

 

[FROGGEman2]

Yes. It weeds out all the stupids so the real people who care can get an education.

 

[Mad World]

I think it is a reasonable age, school simply doesn't suit some people and they often learn more once they're out of school than when they were in it. Or maybe this is just my wishful thinking and I want to get out of this hell-hole some people call school.

I'm with you, man.

College isn't all that bad, but I don't know if I want to continue. I'll finish the two classes I'm currently taking, but I don't know if I will pursue a diploma. I don't know... maybe I'll take a few more classes.

It's not that I'm bad at school; I actually get fairly good grades. I just really dislike tests, projects, assignments, etc.

 

[Mr.Something]

Some people are mature enough by the age of 16 and some are not. The schools can't monitor and profile every single student, so a standard of 18 years would be more reasonable. Ideally, it should be flexible so that individual situations that stand out could drop out at 16, but not everybody who deserves that opportunity would get it.

The age of adulthood is set to 18 for the reason that most teenagers have rebellious attitudes (that get them into drinking, smoking, etc.) or lack proper judgment and make major decisions without thinking through them thoroughly. The minority of scenarios where a teenager can see past the hyperbolic dramas and social hierarchy of grade school, and can adapt from school to the workforce at an earlier age than others is too small for the schools to keep track of.

Personally, I would like the age to be 16, but I know that it would allow the majority of teenagers, who need to be kept in a structured environment for those extra two years, to make life-altering decisions that they aren't ready for.

 

[dietpeachsnapple]

My opinion that a 16 year old should have the discretion is based on a contingency based protocol.

Dropping out should be the rare exception of someone tormented by their own genius and bound to be a prodigy, or the severely troubled youth who, so disenchanted with the education system and its principles, decides that they are more inclined to experience based learning.

The contingency, as such, is this: Schooling provides a fundamental certification of one's ability to work within a structured system. A "work capable" certificate, if you will. If a person wants to drop out, they would need to demonstrate an ability in some other regard that showed them to be "work capable."

I am thinking an internship at a mechanic shop, admissions to a university, an IQ of 200, etc.

 

[Smudge91]

In the UK you can join the military at age 16. So I think that the compulsory age for school should be 16 provided you join the military and get A-Levels or equivalent whilst in the military, or else you stay in school until 18. We have too many people dropping out at 16 and either scrounging off the state or trying to get a job and failing because they're too young. Every UK child should have to stay on unless they join the Armed Forces. That's my view for the UK, anyway. As far as other countries go, I'm not getting involved in a debate with people from those countries.

I agree with this, i know quite a few people who just leave education saying they can do what they want and now they're just scrounging off the state. Also if you get A Levels and a degree people can go into the army at a higher rank and have the possibility of a carreer in the army instead of being just a private and no hope of promotion and being forced to leave after 25 years after that they are virtually unemployable. Although i thought they have already raised the minimum age to 18 starting from people who have joined year 7 this year.

 

[Raven's Nest]

It all seems rather pointless anyway. I'm in the UK but every time I walk past a college full of 16 - 18 year olds I get really mixed messages about who wants to be there or not. You'd think those that dropped out of school wouldn't want to carry on but I see those same kids all return to college a year later to do some stupid course in football science (soccer) or media studies "the worst vocational course". This is because the government practically pays you to stay on now-a-days. The kind of people that milk the money and benefits are the kind of people that don't want to be there anyway and are going to be just as unproductive when they finish their "education". The government is wasting everyone's money by creating this scrounging benefit theiving generation. At the same time they are dishing out false hope by the bucket full. By the time average mcJoe finishes college he'll realise he isn't going to be a record producer or a astronaut or a celebrity or games designer without a shit load of more work and starting from the very bottom. They don't have the patience to do that because they are the same kind of people who think the world owes them a living. I'm not just stereotyping here, there was an article in a respectable newspaper which shared the same concerns as me...Trust me, this problem is gonna escalate.

 

[Lost In The Void]

Sure, if they want to ruin their lives by not getting a High School diploma, let them.

No, you should not be allowed at all. People who drop out are fucktarded unless they go to college somehow. Also, more dropouts= more criminals and faux news watchers.

Both these posts are very narrow minded and short sighted. I myself just graduated last year and am in first year college. Now my brother, who is about to turn 16, has for all intents and purposes, has dropped out of school due to the stress of the teachers in my school. This, coupled with learning disorders that fill a god damned page, make it hard for him to learn and as a result there is no point in him wasting his time there. What he wants to do is take a few years off, maybe upgrade when he's older and can cope better. Now I'm also not saying my brother is stupid. He does magic with mechanics, and can fix things in a car that I don't even know exist. he also knows farming and farm equipment like the back of his hand. Now look at this, I have my academic route of college than moving to a law degree, he has mechanics and farming, both of which have potential to make huge cash, especially in Alberta. That leads me to my final question: Is it the guy with the college degree who grows the food you eat, or the livestock you consume, where does it come from, and for the love of God don't say the supermarket. I swear if I hear that again....

My intended reply would probably get me suspended and maybe start a flame war, so I'll just say this: Cats are awesome (no they aren't, that's the Toxoplasma gondii talking!)

I can't give you the answer on the suspension thing however I don't want to give the impression that I would flame either. I simply saw what I saw and responded with what I have seen. I am quite curious as to what you have to say though feel free to PM it to me I assure you it takes alot to get me mad at a random individual on the Internet