Although we are not fully ready to end compulsory education in the United States, this system should be phased out as soon as possible for the adolescents who have no desire for knowledge.
Allow me to explain. Do this to adolescents only, please. Not having compulsory education for children of middle school age and younger is absurd. This is because communication is the most important tool one could ever dream of having. This communication tool is called ‘literacy’. Literacy and number sense are the building blocks of all other branches of education. The DNA if you will.
If the view has not become clear now, I am not in favor of the United States’ compulsory education law(s) through the end of high school. The idea that skipping classes in high school is fun for some kids lies in the parent’s responsibilities and not the school’s already overloaded system. For others, school is a place to not do school work and just play sports. Although the author is in a trio of sports, sports are not school and are always placed on the back burner while homework needs to be done. (Which is why the author is currently not playing basketball outside). The final reason to end compulsory education in high school only is that many kids are already working long hours and getting up early to go to school. Kids that do this might need to earn a little extra money… but working 6-11 p.m. at McDonald’s is not in your school life’s best interest. It should be the child’s decision which path to choose. One of flipping burgers, or nearly endless possibilities? Each to his own.
I will not just whine about our compulsory education system, but I will offer solutions. Such as: offering free optional public education similar to college. Sound different? No. That’s the system we have in place, sans ‘optional.’ College might become the equivalent of our current high school, and employers might view it as such. You already become one step ahead of the kids that do not go to high school and one or two steps higher than the slackers if you go on to undergraduate and graduate universities. This would make it nearly impossible to get a good salary if you did not go to high school; and force the hand of the kid that decided not to go to high school and make him/her actually achieve something. The second offer to reform would instead of making high school compulsory per se, would be to have a certain trade that you would study in a high school and have them work independently. This would increase their experience immensely. Also, another option might be to shorten the compulsory education part of the school day and offer the more specific fields as optional later in the day.
High schoolers who have enough influence to drive automobiles and (sometimes) smoke should have enough sense not to support a right and choose and whether they believe in it or not. Why not let teens vote on it? Why not give it some exposure in the echoing halls in Washington? The school environment would have less of a negative attitude towards learning as a result. The students who did not excel and that are given lesser jobs would be equated by those reaching for the stars. For the past and many possible reasons beyond the realm of my word limit, this is the system should be phased out as soon as possible for the adolescents who have no desire for knowledge: compulsory education.
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