HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS DON'T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE

Ontario Minister of Education Gerard Kennedy announced Monday that the
provinces high school drop out rate had increased by 45%.

That means over 32% of Ontario's high school students, or 48,000 kids,
dropped out of high school in the 2003-2004 academic year. In 1999 before
the removal of OAC, or Grade 13, the province's drop out rate was a mere 22%.

Kennedy was quick to blame the significant jump in the number of dropouts
on the double cohort, or elimination of Grade 13 that significantly
increased the number of students graduating in 2003. He also pleaded with
teachers to give more individual attention to students that are
under-performing and likely to leave school.

In terms of the double cohort's contribution to the swelling number of high
school drop outs, Kennedy's right -- the elimination of Grade 13 did put
more pressure on students.

What he neglected to mention however, likely because the subject has
somehow become taboo, is that the increase in high school dropouts is also
the result of poor parenting and students failing to take personal
responsibility for their own academic success.

Increased academic pressure should not translate to a 45% increase in the
drop out rate. Something is obviously wrong.

Setting aside the argument that teachers simply don't have the resources to
handle increasingly large classes, or that the teachers themselves (through
the constant threat of strikes and work stoppages) aren't in some way
putting students at a disadvantage, parents and their children are the next
most responsible for high school achievements.

Not everyone can graduate in the standard four years and academic pressure
can be daunting, but there is no pressure sufficiently adequate to explain
why 48,000 of Ontario's students are dropping out of high school and more
importantly, why on Earth their parents let them. How many of you reading
this column have parents who'd have allowed you to drop out of high school?

A conversation with my Mom about quitting school would go something like
this: "Mom, can I drop out of school?" "Hmm, well Ike, I brought you into
this world and if you drop out of high school I'll take you out of it."

My parents, like many, would never have allowed me to quit school and for
90% of my high school career I was far from the model student. My parents
had to play an active role in my education; attending parent-teacher
interviews, checking my report cards and talking to my teachers.

A significant number of the high school kids in constantly getting into
trouble have parents who have never been to a parent-teacher conference
(unless they get a phone call), never read the letters sent home from the
school and sometimes never even looked at their kid's report cards.

When Things Go Wrong

Teachers constantly struggle just to get parents to show up for interviews
or act like they care about their kid's education. Then, when things go
wrong, the parents blame the school, the teacher, the premier of Ontario,
Santa Claus and everyone but themselves. Bad parenting is the No. 1 cause
of kids dropping out of high school.

The No. 2 cause is drugs. Marijuana has created more high school dropouts
than Grade 12 Algebra ever will, and the weed lobbyists who'd argue
differently are more consumed with satisfying their own pleasures than
addressing the problems marijuana's abuse creates.

In high school, weed is a gateway drug, plain and simple. I've watched
dozens of my fellow high school students go from marijuana to hash to
mushrooms, or begin smoking and have their grades, like weed, go up in smoke.

Eventually everything becomes secondary to getting high. A significant
number of dropouts, as all high school students already know, are potheads.

Canadians students are no longer just competing with each other or
Americans, they're competing with the world. Brains, not oil or diamonds,
are Canada's most important resource. Please, let's not waste them.