Alright That's It. I Have Had It!

Maybe you've heard, but probably you haven't. Johns Hopkins University has released a report about high schools that that they are calling "dropout factories." Four of them are in my adopted West Michigan hometown. Argh! Was not all that I said when I saw the local coverage of the story.

I get that there are some things that the schools should be doing to get more kids to graduate. But how 'bout a little sharing of the blame here? I am willing to share the credit for my young student Johnny/Juan/Ju/Jovante if the student and the family and the community will share some of the blame. Come on people!

These kids who drop out of high school obviously had parents at one time; where the #@$* are they when the kid drops out? Did they do all they could do for Johnny/Juan/Ju/Jovante? Did they read to him when he was little, make sure he did his homework when he was in middle school, keep him involved and doing healthy activities? Did they feed him nutritious food around a table that had at least one adult present for multiple meals a week? Seriously people, if you don't do you part, why does the school have to perform miracles to "fix" your kid? We're only human too!

And don't get me started on all the white and Christian (black and white) people who move out of these schools instead of sticking around to fight for quality at the schools. Oh no, their babies are more precious than other people's babies. Gotta go. Whatever.

Alright, this post was more of a rant than a coherently argued case for working with schools instead of treating them like the enemy, but sometimes I just get tired. Maybe later I'll calm down and say something more logical and less emotional.