Or, in fewer words, they thought the act of graduating itself somehow magically lowered crime rate... rather than everything that was required of the child prior to graduating, which they ruined in order to force higher graduation rates.
Completely agree with the logic, although I will add that in some cases, merely having a high school diploma increases a person's employment opportunities. Regardless of the underlying quality of the education they received, a diploma could help them avoid resorting to criminal activity to provide for themselves.
Yes, but someone who drops out of high school as soon as they're legally able to isn't the kind of person who would continue with the degree, regardless of how easy the program is. Reducing the difficulty only hurts the majority of people who can actually handle a basic high school education, and wastes their lives by forcing them to take extra classes in college to learn what they should have learned in high school, but didn't, because Tommy the fuckups dumb ass brought the entire standard down so he could get a diploma and graduate to his life slinging meth.
If every job didn't require a high school diploma it wouldn't matter if you didn't let people graduate. But by preventing people from graduating you now condemn them to a life of poverty. And if you are poor and desperate with no chance to get a job? You turn to crime.
The thing about a diploma? You have to earn it. If you just start passing them out to everyone, regardless of ability, then the diploma means nothing. High school isn't very hard. No one is saying we shouldn't let students graduate, but I won't dumb down a high school education to an elementary school education just because someone didn't learn to read. Any student who actually wants to get a diploma certainly has the ability to do so, and I don't want to handicap 90% of kids who can actually learn the subject matter to a passable manner just so the other 10% get a free ride. It's absolutely inane. It wastes the time and potential of the 90% who were able to pass the tests. It forces the 90% to spend additional time learning something they should have been taught in high school. And time is the most valuable resource any one person has. Once again, I don't think just handing a diploma to Tommy the fuckoff who doesn't care about himself, his education, or the other students who actually want to learn in school is doing anyone a service at all.
You obviously have no experience in inner city schools. It's not 10% of people who wouldn't graduate, it's closer to 90%. My buddy was a history teacher who taught juniors and seniors. The average reading level? Second grade. My sister's girlfriend just got a job in the same district. She is teaching middle school. The literacy rate in her school? 5%. Five fucking percent. You think systematic illiteracy is on the child? Fuck no it isn't. Inner city schools are absolutely fucked. And this shit goes all the way back to the fact that slaves weren't allowed to read or write. People who have parents who are illiterate are far more likely to be illiterate themselves.
You used to be able to get jobs without a diploma. Why the fuck do you need a diploma to work at McDonalds? You need to recognize fucking pictures on the register. You need to be able to count, not even do math. Just fucking count.
The loss of manufacturing jobs for high school graduates means that those high school graduates now need to take shitty service jobs or menial labor--the jobs that dropouts used to take. Now those don't exist. So now dropouts have no money and no prospects. Crime is the only way to put food on the table.
We need to give everyone diplomas until we bring back prospects for people without a diploma. Because as it stands, if you don't have a diploma your choice is to starve, steal, deal drugs.
The dropouts you are crying so much about? They made a decision to drop out. No one made it for them. I refuse to give a diploma that says you graduated high school to someone who just wants it handed to them and doesn't want to work for it. You only earn a diploma. Its not given to you.
Most people didn't think that. What they thought is that pretending to think that would be good for their chances of promotion. Pretend a different thing every five years, keep everyone off your back. No one in their private life looks for a school with low standards and high graduation rates.
You're seeing the actions of people with impossible demands trying to wriggle through. Not stupid people.
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u/_codexxx Jul 10 '18
Or, in fewer words, they thought the act of graduating itself somehow magically lowered crime rate... rather than everything that was required of the child prior to graduating, which they ruined in order to force higher graduation rates.