Edu-ma-cation rant...

You know, I was just thinking about graduation rates in Metro, and I happened to talk to the teenager a couple of houses down. I asked him how things were at his school of zone, and he said "I'm not there this year". He had dropped out, presumably.

Of all the kids I know, who have went through schools on our side of town, I do not know one single one who went to Antioch, McGavock, or Glencliff that has actually graduated. I can think of six or seven who have dropped out. The only ones I know of from my side of town who graduated both went to Hume-Fogg (the academic magnet). Two of my friends' kids graduated from Hillsboro in the Green Hills area, and one more will do so this year.

These aren't good odds, folks, because only a couple of those kids are from what I would call a welfare-type family with an uncaring parent.

The Tennessean reported yesterday that at Overton High some kids sat in the auditorium for THREE DAYS waiting for their registration/class schedules. If we can't do any better than that, it's no wonder kids think that school isn't very important.

In my little town in Minnesota, the graduating class is featured in the local paper. I think maybe one of them did not have post-secondary education plans. But then again, I cannot remember a time when a school bond issue didn't pass in my small town. Schools are kind of the centerpiece of life up there; a good school keeps a town alive.

There is "open enrollment" up there now, where parents choose which school district they can send their children to. Other communities are now sending their childrent to my hometown's school. There aren't any private schools, and they spend a lot more per child there...surely some of that is because the district is a lot smaller, but a lot of it has to do with a higher level of importance placed on education--upper midwest schools are generally in the top five in the nation. Of course, it also helps a lot that they don't really have a lot of low income kids, few ELL students (illegals are inappropriately clogging our schools locally), parents who by and large care about education, etc. If you have trouble with your standardized tests up there, you are placed in remediation (I love that word!) to help you get your scores up.

Honestly, I didn't realize how good I had it growing up. The schools in the South still amaze me, and not in a good way...even nineteen years later...