Truancy Should be Allowed.

[CrossLOPER]

Who cares if a kid does not want to go to school? The way I see it, if someone does not want to learn, they shouldn't have to. Who here hasn't had to tolerate the presence of someone who displays no will to learn? IN FACT, anyone who even APPEARS not to want to learn should be FORCED OUT. Like breathing, education is a privilege that if not appreciated, should not be granted. Heck, it'll even be beneficial to all parties involved! Think about it: People who want to learn get to learn and those that don't have a chance to pursue other interests, like selling SAFE, LEGAL hard drugs. These benefits carry on to the community. These "new model sellers" will be able to provide quality service to those hard working folks who stayed in school and went on to marry multiple times and have many wonderful children. The sellers can also provide "enhancers" to those having more difficulty finding relationships. I see a large wonderful community with healthy, mellow parents and countless happy children.

All this isn't here yet because you HAVE TO make your kids go to school.

[pevergreen]

Because parents would either force the kids to, or no kids would really be educated.

[FactionHeir]

No education means you get a new bottom rung of society who can't read and write and can thus endager others, especially as they will likely be poor or join gangs or commit crimes due to ignorance.
Also, they'll cost quite a bit of social security from actual taxpayers.

[CrossLOPER]

But they're not learning anyway what's the point???

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Truancy. Should. Not. Be. Allowed.

[FactionHeir]

Forcing them to attend would mean that they will pick up something, even if its not a lot and they can be put into special needs/tutoring programs. It actually helps some of them.
I think the minimum level of education required should be middle school graduation.

[pevergreen]

In Queensland, you can leave at the age of 15 or when you finish year 10, as long as you do another two years of education (trades etc)

[CrossLOPER]

I think all of you are totally missing the point. The point is to allow people to circumvent all the crap they're forced to go through and just get to the important stuff. Countless people have been successful without getting full education. You think really think that that piece of paper from your overpriced, vaunted college means that much? You really think that you are that good after four years of mostly fluff? YOU NEED TO LEARN IMPORTANT STUFF AS SOON AS YOU CAN SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY BE GOOD AND IT AND NOT JUST BE A SMUG BASTARD WITH LOAN DEBTS AND OVER A DECADE OF WASTED TIME.

[Crazed Rabbit]

You're right. We should do away with the quagmire that is the US public school system.

CR

[ICantSpellDawg]

You're right. We should do away with the quagmire that is the US public school system.

CR

I agree - what a racket.

[Tribesman]

No education means you get a new bottom rung of society who can't read and write and can thus endager others, especially as they will likely be poor or join gangs or commit crimes due to ignorance.
Also, they'll cost quite a bit of social security from actual taxpayers.

I have come across many people who actually did go to school yet can't read or write , also lots of people in "gangs" , plenty of university educated criminals , and lots of educated wasters on welfare .
Yet I didn't bother with school , can read and write , didn't join a gang , am not a criminal and the only cost I put on social security payments from actual taxpayers was statuatory sick pay when I broke a leg at work . Now the same can be said for my father , apart from the broken leg but you can replace that with the fact that he got the usual social security payments when he reached 65 .
Perhaps you need a narrower brush if you want to paint a picture .

[rory_20_uk]

A few hundred years ago there were many oppourtunities for uneducated people. Wars wre fought by the UK around the globe, requiring a steady stream of bodies; in the carribean entire garrisons would die in a matter of years. Shipping also had a constant death toll. There was a lot of manual labour, in industry, in the fields, the mines and in houses. There was also no social safety net. Everybody knew that to survive you worked. If you had a place at school you were envied as you could get ahead.

Now it's the opposite. Everyone gets free education, and if you decide to piss it down the drain we move to another school or possibly home tuition. After school we have to give money to you, and of course there's free adult education.

Education is a gift. Many parts of the world parents and children would be envious at spending 18 years learning. To make it appear the blessing that it is, the safety net needs to be slackened significantly: you can bunk school, but it's your life you're wasting. Don't expect us to pick up the pieces.

[Productivity]

I have come across many people who actually did go to school yet can't read or write , also lots of people in "gangs" , plenty of university educated criminals , and lots of educated wasters on welfare .
Yet I didn't bother with school , can read and write , didn't join a gang , am not a criminal and the only cost I put on social security payments from actual taxpayers was statuatory sick pay when I broke a leg at work . Now the same can be said for my father , apart from the broken leg but you can replace that with the fact that he got the usual social security payments when he reached 65 .
Perhaps you need a narrower brush if you want to paint a picture .

Since when has a single data point made a trend? Every trend will have outlying datapoints, it's how statistics works, yet everyone seems to think that when they have experienced something different to what is the broad societal trend it means that they've invalidated the entire theory.

A better educated society will in general result in a more productive society. I think this has been pretty well proven in the past but I guess if you really want to be argumentative I guess I could go and find some data for you.

[Hosakawa Tito]

The first day of school must be nigh...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Wait till ones school days are over and they enter the of the work force. Sorry son but after school....it actually gets worse.

[CrossLOPER]

I dropped out at 16,

I stopped reading right there. You've just proved my point.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I stopped reading right there. You've just proved my point.

The exception is not the rule.

[Tribesman]

The exception is not the rule.

An exception means that the rule doesn't hold , or is that a theory ? where one example shows the theory to be flawed .
Educated people eh

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

An exception means that the rule doesn't hold , or is that a theory ? where one example shows the theory to be flawed .
Educated people eh

On many statistical charts, there are outlying data points. Trust me, school helps.

[yesdachi]

A lot of schools suck and the teachers suck and the systems suck (I have mentioned my disgust for the school system many times here) but for all the failings it is still the best way to get ahead and giving a child (who isn’t mature enough to do anything else) the option to ruin their life is criminal. It is our responsibility as parents and citizens (of whatever country) to make sure we are preparing the next generation of parents and citizens. I barely trust the school system to prepare kids for this task, without it we would have a generation burden the rest of us would have to carry.

Some kids don’t like school and in some cases it is the school’s fault for sucking but I would guess most times it is the parents fault the a child really doesn’t like or do well in school. I would be more inclined to support kids quitting their parents than school.

[Tribesman]

On many statistical charts, there are outlying data points. Trust me, school helps.

School obviously didn't help you with your reading and comprehension did it ?
It obviously didn't help you follow points in a discussion either

[Seamus Fermanagh]

In a system wherein the government has assumed primary responsibility for educating its citizens-to-be and wherein the government is actively engaged in providing a safety net in the form of welfare, unemployment insurance and socialized medicine (this includes most of Europe, the Americas, etc.), it is very much in the government's interest to prevent truancy and to make sure everyone is exposed to the education it deems appropriate and to minimize the number it must cover with the "dole."

I would prefer a system wherein none of these services is provided by the central government. In that scenario, truancy would be moot at best.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

School obviously didn't help you with your reading and comprehension did it ?
It obviously didn't help you follow points in a discussion either

Can you take it if I'm blunt with you?

By the way;

Since when has a single data point made a trend? Every trend will have outlying datapoints, it's how statistics works, yet everyone seems to think that when they have experienced something different to what is the broad societal trend it means that they've invalidated the entire theory.

My point has already been made.

[Tribesman]

My point has already been made.

And once again you prove
School obviously didn't help you with your reading and comprehension did it ?
It obviously didn't help you follow points in a discussion either

[Samurai Waki]

Heres my beef with the American Education system; those that complete with a Highschool Diploma stand less of a chance of getting into a major university than those who drop out and pursue their GED. The system would let you believe that the HS Diploma is a better show of your intelligence/performance in real world situations. I've done a lot of research on this matter (heck I dropped out and got my GED, and I attended two years of college at UCLA before transferring to the University of Montana).

The GED was created in the 1940s to allow people who didn't want to complete Highschool a way to enroll into the military without a Highschool diploma.

Because of the stipulation that if you got your GED chances are you'd end up in the military, most businesses look down on the GED (and still very much do) however, during the 60s the US military co-erced the Department of Education to heighten the standards for those who wanted to take the GED, so drop-outs under the age of 18 could take the test, if they felt they were intelligent enoguh and by the time they were of age to volunteer for the military would probably do so, instead of having to go through the messy complication of drafting them to serve for the Vietnam War. However, because the Standards were heightened on the test, there was a clause in the contract between the US military and the Department of Education that essentially if you passed your GED, you automatically passed with 3.80 GPA Highschool Equivalency.

However, the Social Stigma of getting a GED means you're not very intelligent has persisted... not within the University System, because the Clause signed between the US military and the Department of Education was never removed, even though the Active Duty Military has since then resigned on allowing GED graduates to participate in the military.

What this means is that a GED holder will automatically pass any GPA review by any College including any Ivy League Colleges (Princeton, Yale, Harvard, et al.) The next step of course is scoring high on an SAT, but most non Ivy League Colleges don't even require GED students to take the SAT or ACT. So this really begs the question, is dropping out and getting a GED a better method of being accepted into a college? I would think so as long as thats your intent, if you plan on working at a retail store, maybe its better to just wait and get your HS Diploma.

Thats how totally messed up the US education system is.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

And once again you prove
School obviously didn't help you with your reading and comprehension did it ?
It obviously didn't help you follow points in a discussion either

There are exceptions to every rule in statistics, if that is what you are referring to. It's a manner of speech - just because one outlying data point is there doesn't mean that point defines the rest of the data collection.

So, I can pretty much copy and paste what you wrote:

School obviously didn't help you with your reading and comprehension did it ?
It obviously didn't help you follow points in a discussion either

[Mikeus Caesar]

Well, if we're going to allow children to decide whether or not they want an education, that must mean they're also old enough to consent to doing other things, which therefore means the age of consent should be lowered to the age of 4, all pedophilia laws should be scrapped and kids should be allowed to go out drinking, since they're old enough to decide what's best for them.

[Tribesman]

There are exceptions to every rule in statistics, if that is what you are referring to.

It obviously didn't help you follow points in a discussion either

What does "follow" mean Mars?

[Ironside]

In a system wherein the government has assumed primary responsibility for educating its citizens-to-be and wherein the government is actively engaged in providing a safety net in the form of welfare, unemployment insurance and socialized medicine (this includes most of Europe, the Americas, etc.), it is very much in the government's interest to prevent truancy and to make sure everyone is exposed to the education it deems appropriate and to minimize the number it must cover with the "dole."

I would prefer a system wherein none of these services is provided by the central government. In that scenario, truancy would be moot at best.

And the quality of the nation and it's wealth would go down... But it's a nation's choise to go that path I guess.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

It obviously didn't help you follow points in a discussion either

What does "follow" mean Mars?

Surely you can look up the definition yourself if you don't know?

At any rate, if you have a point to make, make it and back it up. If not...well, I'm not aware how I can say that politely.

[Kralizec]

If this is an attempt to make fun of the thread about legalizing drugs, I'm not impressed.