Losing some students.

My mechanic, John, is one of the hardest working honest people I know. His business is highly productive and I think he makes more money than I do. He also dropped out of High School. He hated school and to hear him talk school hated him. Growing up in the early 70’s he had many other opportunities for “career-path” employment. He made the best of them and has a successful business with healthy and happy children and grandchildren. Mechanics fascinated John, English and Social Studies did not. He realizes how luck he was to be able to run from school and still be a “success”. John is angry that his “bone-headed” grandson, who seems to be following in his footsteps, will be unemployable if he drops out.

We have a couple of students like John in our school. In spite of our great environment, see below, they are making every effort to be kicked out. School does not interest them. We are missing the last best chance to reach these kids. I feel we need to develop experiences for some students (10%of our population) where they engage the career first and then the academics. As our school and its resources grow we should consider developing programming for “at-risk-students” with a focus on the trade first and build in academic standards once the child has become invested in a future.