Ayont, and quit this place.
Without
a high IQ, by 14 years old school education has reached its limit, and at this
age and stage of your life you should be out of school and doing something
useful that earns money. Those that want to can stay on, providing they’ve got
a reason and the cognitive firepower to back it up. However, as the general
level of intelligence declines, we should be adjusting school leaving age
downwards to give the less brainy children an opportunity of usefully employing
ages 14-18. My mum and dad left school at 14 and this did not harm them. Nor
were my grannies rendered deficient by leaving school at 12, indeed, the exact
opposite.
This
strategy is not insulting to the less intelligent, less academically gifted, or
those whose interests lie elsewhere. Such children know themselves well in
advance of leaving age. It does them no good to pretend that they have a
potential for a certain sort of future, when they have not. Indeed, forcing
them (for such it is), to stay on past their threshold of tolerance for
school-life does them harm, and often to others who are forced to accommodate the
disruptive power of unwilling teenagers. This Quit at Fourteen strategy is thus,
realising, not denying, options.
A
very large proportion of jobs, particularly service and support, could easily
be done by 14 year olds – as they were in former times. Indeed, many of those
jobs could be done just as well by even younger children, and to their pleasure
and development. [Perhaps this to be explored another time]
By
providing employment for our now school-free teens, this would have the added
benefit of reducing the sad need for military-age males from broken countries (perhaps
broken by us while wearing our NATO mask) to come here seeking employment or
welfare or revenge - the first two categories now being filled with our own young people.
Middle primary should be preparing children for this possible meeting with reality, rather than indulging them in fanciful, if not dishonest, dreams of reaching for the stars, which too often turn out to be black holes.
What think ye?
Hi, Rūta here. I don't think that school leaving age needs to be either 18 or 14 really. It much depend on how each one pupil finds himself in this age. Not all kids are the same. Probably a good thing to do is go for an apprenticeship with someone if the kids are ready and they know what skills they want to pursue. Email me or respond. Let's do something this July
ReplyDeleteRuta, concur. If a child has the option of doing something better with their time (and their future) than staying on at school, then they should be allowed to make this choice. From 14 onwards, and suitably advised, I believe that most young adults would be able to make such a choice. However, this choice should not be to leave school to do nothing, just because you are fed up going to school.
ReplyDeleteThis proposal, of course, carries significant legal and social implications.