What Keeps You in School?

[silversnake4133]

Hey guys, I'm conducting research for a speech I have to write for a university class, and my topic deals with the causes of kids dropping out of school or low graduation rates. So for this survey, all I would need is for you guys to answer two questions. Don't worry, they aren't difficult and it takes anywhere from 15 seconds to a few minutes depending on the complexity of your answer.

1. What motivates you to stay in school?

2. What would you like to see implemented in your education system/classrooms/programs to keep more kids from dropping out?

There are no restrictions on who can answer, so you can answer if you're either in grade school (K-12) or University level. Also you don't have to answer in complete sentences.

You are not obligated to answer these questions, but I would really appreciate it if you did. Thanks very much in advance. :3

EDIT: Thank you everyone for your responses. I greatly appreciate the time you set aside to answer these questions.

 

[Radeonx]

I went to school because I realized that the job you can get with a bachelor's degree is way fucking better than the one you can get with a high school diploma.

 

[Palademon]

1. I like learning things, and I'd like a nice job, even though at the age of 17 I'm forced to decide one, which is hard.

2. I'd like to see schools measure ability without the age old "Can you remember this shit?". Because it makes it hard for some people who are genuinely staggeringly intelligent.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

1. its the only chance i get to build up a pseudo-sexual relationship with some guy, so that one day i can get him drunk and seduce him.
also learning shit.

2. not make retarded decisions. my school won't let us go up the street through the back gate. front gate: fine, back gate: they've put up CCTV cameras to stop us buying lunch.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

1. Get a good job, get money.

Ditto

2. Promise them some quality chocolate upon graduation. Don't underestimate the power of chocolate.

In all seriousness, show them that staying in school leads to 'Answer #1'.

And chocolate.

What? I FUCKIN LOVE CHOCOLATE!

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I went to school to get trained in the field of cinematography so that I may eventually get involved with an independent film company and have a job more satisfying than making bread.

[sub][sub]Holy crap I want to be in University right now...[/sub][/sub]

 

[Chibini]

To me school is just a playground where I can evolve my skills and learn more without consequences. It occupies your life until you truly figure out what you want to do with your life, and how.

As stated above, there shouldn't be done much more to keep people in school. In fact, I think it should be harder to obtain the right to study at a higher level (And by that I don't mean money). Back in the day, education wasn't mandatory. Only the gifted and motivated attended school at adult age. today the circumstances are different.

Talentless and unmotivated people are thrown into the school system, and are expected to put up with up to 13 years of schooling before they get the right to choose their own path. I understand why a lot of people aren't willing to put up with that shit.

The problem is not that people drop out, it's that too many attends in the first place. Education isn't for everyone!

 

[JokerCrowe]

What's keeping me in school is an actual interest in the thing I'm studying. Also, I really want to learn a lot, like... "a LOT" a lot.

And what's this about not needing to post complete sentenc

 

[BeerTent]

I'm out of collage.

I suck shit in a call centre, and am $15000 in debit.

Aint nothing to motivate me to waste time and money again. Primary school was a waste, Secondary was a waste, and Collage was a drain.

Though, if I had to do it all again, I'd only shave one year off of collage. The blindingly slow process is still useful.

 

[Zen Toombs]

1. What motivates you to stay in school?

[sub]blush[/sub] I actually quite enjoy school, and find learning things to be fun.

2. What would you like to see implemented in your education system/classrooms/programs to keep more kids from dropping out?

I think that teaching people to their level of skill and interest would help keep more children from dropping out. Many dropouts are either bright kids who aren't challenged enough or not as bright kids who aren't given the help they need to succeed.
At least, that's my view on it.

Good luck on your speech, and hope this helped! If you'd like more, just message me.

 

[Dags90]

I'm out of collage.

I suck shit in a call centre, and am $15000 in debit.

My that's an expensive piece of artwork.

What keeps me in school?

It's pretty much impossible to have a science career with anything less than a bachelors.

What would I like to see to decrease drop out rates?

I think you should have to get a 2 year degree before you enter a 4 year program. That way, even if you drop out halfway through, you still have your 2 year degree. Also, more performance based funding. I know too many people who try to juggle school and a job.

 

[Soviet Steve]

1. What motivates you to stay in school?

I grew up in a destitute and broken family. I can't undo the unpleasant experiences but with education and hard work comes security and a good salary. I really want my own family to be comfortable.

2. What would you like to see implemented in your education system/classrooms/programs to keep more kids from dropping out?

I would like to see courses run in a more focused manner. Rather than having 8 subjects for a year I'd prefer to see 4 subjects for half a year each. At present I am running a marathon of 9 assignments and projects which is a bit stressful and annoying.

I hope it proves useful.

 

[ChildishLegacy]

Learning stuff is actually interesting if you have the ability to keep doing it, and it would be boring to stop learning. Getting high grades has motivated me to stay in college (UK college = end 2 years of high school) and learning maths and science is what I want to keep doing for a great deal longer after school.

I'm in the UK and I'm happy with our education system and how everything is taught, but I wouldn't mind the exam boards for certain subjects change the way they mark papers, it's like you need to read their mind to mention certain key words or you don't get the marks.

 

[soulless-5]

For me what keeps im in school (going into uni) is that I will get a more exciting/fun/well paid job with a degree.

As for what improvements I'd like to see, well living in Aus i'd like all of highschool to be compulsory and for the exams/ schooling to be harder/ more interesting. Kinda sucked in last year of high school Physics where they told us about stuff (e.g strong nuclear force, BCS superconductivity) but never tried to explain it.

 

[standokan]

I went to school because I realized that the job you can get with a bachelor's degree is way fucking better than the one you can get with a high school diploma.

This

And I do it to take the piss on my brother who sadley didn't make it, to college.

 

[WeAreStevo]

I'm completing my masters because I wanted to be a MFT and you cannot do that without a masters.

As for what motivated me, I dropped out of college initially, but after working at Domino's delivering pizzas I thought "well...this isn't what I want to do with my life..." and returned to school.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

First, the material. You don't go through this much further education if you don't care about what you're studying and modern academia makes it impossible to make useful contributions without passing through the filters and obtaining the backing of a university. Also, the explosion of information availability more recently makes it very, very hard to learn things about the current state of a field without people who know which pieces of information are actually important.

Further, the hope that at some point they will feel satisfied that they've filtered out all of the people who don't actually care about what they're studying and can thus treat everyone like actual capable adults.

Sadly, I'm in the middle of a PhD at one of the best universities for my field in the world and this still hasn't happened - everyone still acts like we're children trying to cheat our way through things, like we need to be constantly tested to make sure we're actually doing work, like we can't be trusted to say something when we don't understand something and consequently like they need to examine us to make sure that isn't happening. Also, the bizarre Puritan work ethic approach to homework persists: it's less about understanding and more about some strange virtue inherent in doing things you don't necessarily want or need to do.

The impression I've gotten from more established people in academia is that this is a fairly recent phenomenon, I imagine likely correlated with the massive changes in the amount of money involved in higher education. In the past, if you were getting a PhD it was assumed that you wanted to be there (and if you didn't, that was your problem, not theirs) - no one held your hand unless you asked them to and any work you did was always specifically aimed at your understanding of the material. The notion of an exam for, say, a graduate seminar is very strange in this context.

This is probably the result of the economic inflation of academia. No one is going to allow a school to maintain graduate students without constant proof that they're doing "the right things". You can't go to graduate school and try to get what you personally want out of it, you need to go to get what they want you to get out of it because you're far too big an investment. This dovetails nicely with the rise of testing in lower education too: education is seen primarily as an economic investment and you need to be sure you're getting your money's worth. This mentality makes me sad.

 

[Voodoomancer]

Because you can barely get a retail job here without a college degree.

And also because I'd rather not sit in a low-pay job.

 

[Jessta]

Because when I don't I feel as though I'm slowly melding into my house with no motivation or reason to validate my existence and I become clincally depressed, I swiftly wind up in a state where I can't sleep and my thoughts are plagued with nightmares and the work seems to become a dull gray pasty color.

Stop telling them they have to so much, people rarely like to do things when they feel they have to. My major problems with school is there are some nights I just can't sleep waking up to go to school doesn't feel like it teaches me anything with three hours of sleep under my belt and I just end up more stressed out. I think I would be much better off just not going on those days but the way schools set up I can't.
I guess they could also make it start and end longer, the main problem behind this has been that this style interferes with jobs of the students but really school's gonna interfere with jobs no matter what so I mean big deal >_>
Actually if you were to look at my grades I think you could probably find an interesting little pattern
Math 80
English 75
Biology (required science) 73
Social studies 68
Art 98
Computer animation 100
programing 100
Physics (elective science) 94
Electives = high A's while required courses are are all B-C grades
when I choose to do something its easy to get excited and pumped up for it when I'm TOLD to do something its not my descision its not my action its not ME can't expect me to put my mind into something when I can't put my heart into it.
Oh and maybe stop regarding 17 year olds with the same eye you regard 6 year olds, you don't just magically evolve to an adult when you turn 19 and you should be allowed to gather more and more control over your schedule as you get older but its pretty much the same as always.