Essay On The Mandatory Age To Drop Out Of High School

The mandatory age for a student to drop out of high school should be raised from 16 to 18, because only an adult should be able to make a decision that will affect the rest of his/her life. Starting life with no diploma leads to difficulties like finding a job with lower requirements, which in turn pays less and makes living healthy even harder. It can open the door to personal or social issues that may be irreversible. Raising the age will avoid these obstacles and better people’s lives in the long run and help society.

Before the age to drop out is changed, who it’s helping should be looked at. There are many signs that can be seen during school to determine which students are on the path of leaving school, such as those with low test scores, failed classes, and weak student engagement like skipping classes or having discipline issues. Most dropouts claimed school was boring and didn’t have anything relevant teachings, but an attitude like that can come from out of school factors like family. Parents who don’t value education or possibly didn’t graduate themselves can pass that on to their kids, in fact students’ family backgrounds are viewed as the most important predictor of schooling achievement (Lofstrom).

Most jobs that hire teenagers require a high school diploma which is why it could be more difficult to find a job. In 2011 the unemployment rate amongst dropouts was about 14.3%. “those with a high school diploma and no post-secondary education worked more consistently (i.e., longer spells of full time employment) eight years after high school than those without a high school diploma, regardless of their grades and standardized test scores in high school.”(Kuehn). Students who graduated with a diploma have been seen to...

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...ps them away from any negative friends or bad ideas they make when they’re bored. “Providing social support for students during early adolescence appears to be a potentially valuable intervention. Early adolescence is a critical developmental period during which many students acquire negative and oppositional attitudes toward school and authority figures and begin their association with peer groups that may exert a strong and negative influence.”(Donald).

When the legal age to quit school is raised to 18 nothing but positive changes will occur, there will be a higher graduation rate and less long term effects (Messacar). Changes to look forward to are lower unemployment rates among teens, healthier lives, less crime and money being spent on prisons or public assistance, along with lower teen pregnancy rates. The question isn’t should we raise it, but why haven’t we?