In the news last Wednesday, Ontario’s education minister Gerard Kennedy introduced new legislation geared toward battling the province’s increasing high school dropout rate. Currently, 30% of Ontario teens don’t graduate.
Wow! That’s higher than I would have thought!
His proposal is to bar students from earning their driver’s license unless they can prove that they’re still attending classes1.
This prompted some discussion with my GO buddies that morning (GO is the name of the commuter train that I take into work every morning).
While initially, I thought the idea had some merit considering the staggering dropout figures I had just seen, GO buddy Rob made the good point that instead of extorting kids into staying in school and making it more difficult for them to get there (ie. taking away their licenses), we should be making school more accessible for the students and provide them with more options when it comes to secondary-level learning. A good point.
He thought that programs should be set up in a way that would allow teens the option of going to school or learning at home at their own pace using distance learning, home tutoring and eLearning (Online Learning). In his scenario there would be no reason that, if a student was inclined, they couldn’t complete high school in 1-2 years instead of the usual 4 years. This is where GO buddy Rob and I differ in opinion for a couple of reasons.
Reason #1: The Overzealous parent
Most Canadians know of the Hockey-parent phenomenon, where parents’ own delusions of grandeur cause them to push their children too hard, without considering what they may be doing to the child. In some cases these children miss out on a normal childhood and grow up to be…well…less than well-adjusted. One only has to look at the child-star dilemma for plenty of examples of this (see: Michael Jackson).
Now while that is an extreme case and you know in your own heart you’d never let it go that far, the same thing could possibly happen in the scenario above. As a parent, if you had any inkling that your child may be able to finish high school before the age of 16, you may be tempted to guide your child down that path. Is THAT really the best thing for them? Maybe, maybe not. Would you be prepared to abandon that path if you saw that your child wasn’t enjoying themself or suffering socially in this scenario, or might you push a little harder thinking to yourself that it’s just a phase and that you know what’s best for your child. It’s really easy to fall into that trap. I’m sure Joe Jackson never meant to become an abusive, over-bearing father..
Reason #2: The Social Implications
I’m in the online training development industry. I build online courses for large companies to train their employees on their jobs, applications and processes. I believe eLearning is a valuable tool as a training aid in most cases; colleges, universities, trade school, and corporations, but NOT as a complete replacement to traditional learning.
High school though, is a different matter. The thought of students staying home and learning on their own is a bad one in my opinion. Social skills are slowly being lost with every generation thanks in large part to the internet. Many of these skills are learned in the impressionable years; the teenage years; the high school years.
People are relating less and less to each other. Take the Go Train as an example. I’ve been riding it now for about 5 years. For the first 2-3 years, I didn’t say 2 words to anyone! People who I saw every single day, sitting right in front of me, facing me; I didn’t even know their names! Does anyone see a problem with this?
I, by no means am an innocent party in this scenario. After all, I could have just as easily initiated conversation myself. However what goes through my head (as, I’m sure others too) is, “what if this person turns out to be like the John Candy character in Planes, Trains and Automobiles? What if, once I get them started, I won’t be able to shut them up?” It has happened to me many, many times. The only thing worse than commuting with a complete stranger is commuting with a pushy, overly-talkative and completely smothering complete stranger.
Still, there is an inherent problem when you have the same people in such a confined space for 2 hours a day, every day and no one is relating to anyone else; but for the few who work together in the same office and therefore ALREADY know each other.
But hey, they all have valid excuses. Some are working on their laptops; others, checking their Blackberries; still others chatting on their cell phones; watching a movie or TV show on their portable DVD players; listening to their iPod; playing a video game on their PSP, phone or handheld device; or just plain sleeping. All have become acceptable and convenient excuses from having to relate to each other personally.
If you had two people sitting face-to-face on the train, each with a laptop in front of them using a messaging program, they’d most likely relate to each other better online. In one hour, I bet they’d know more about each other than if they had been commuting together for 5 years. How sad is that thought? You know I’m not too far off!
But I digress…
Let’s go back to the high school student. Sure the internet is rich with information, but its riches don’t just stop there. The vast wasteland that is the internet would be a dangerous place to send an impressionable young mind without arming them with the social tools necessary to survive.
I believe these social tools are mostly picked up during the high school years, the supposed best years of our collective lives.
Imagine putting a 14 year-old in a large room filled with pornstars; strippers; gambling tables; video games; musical groups; TV and movie stars; funny videos and animations; jokes; people from all over the world with similar interests; people offering you can’t-miss-get-rich-quick schemes; information on anything and everything your heart desires and then one, singular, high school algebra teacher.
Do you expect that 14 year-old to care about or even see that teacher? That’s what it would be like if we trusted something like the internet to teach our young, impressionable teen-aged kids.
Heck, I’m 30 years-old and I would have a hard time focusing on algebra!
- From the story in Pulse24.com: Schooled in The Facts on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005. ↩︎
What are you thinking?