Thursday, September 08, 2011

Why Dropouts Were Not a Problem a Century Ago

A century ago so few people graduated from high school, or even elementary school, that what was measured was how much schooling they had, not how much schooling they did not have.

Today we have the luxury of conceiving of "dropping out" as a problem because most people get so much more schooling - and better schooling - than they used to. This is a huge improvement that we take for granted.

The positive way to see the same facts is that we have a very high high school graduation rate today, compared to the past. And it is getting higher.

2 comments:

Jordon said...

Jobs for drop outs have moved out of the country. Many of today's graduates are uneducated.

Pioter said...

Ross Perot was spot on about NAFTA. The sucking sound we all heard were jobs leaving America. We have both parties to thank for that.