Drop-Out Proof Your Kids
Emily Heath* was always an eager student. She got high marks in school and, after university, pursued not one, but two, law degrees. School was never difficult for her. But as a parent? History is a struggle. Math classes might as well be taught in Greek. Not only is she having trouble guiding her 16-year-old son, Steven*, down the same academic path she once eagerly travelled, it’s possible he may quit the journey altogether and drop out.
Steven has always been bright. The quiet, middle-class Toronto boy devoured books from an early age, performed well in elementary school and easily managed complex physics equations until only recently. Yet he’s flunking high school. Boys, Heath fears, bottle up too much and act out by failing. You see, Heath separated from Steven’s father three years ago, and Steven has become increasingly withdrawn since. “I’m in way over my head,” says Heath, 47. “I have no clue what to do with this kid.”
Here’s what she has done: hired a math tutor and an educational coach to help Steven organize his school work. Sat side by side with him at the kitchen table and worked on civics and math assignments, sessions that typically ended in arguments or tears. “It breaks my heart that he’s so unhappy,” Heath says, her desperate voice cracking. “I think the education system is so removed from his reality that he can’t fathom why it’s of any benefit to him.”
Dropping out, by the numbers
Heath’s concerns are not hers alone. Hundreds of parents across Canada are trying to keep their children from falling into an educational abyss. Philip Oreopoulos, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto, says teenagers tend to give up in their final years of high school just after they hit 16. Today, about 212,000, or one in 10, Canadians between the ages of 20 and 24 don’t have their high-school diploma, even as the value of a high-school education continues to influence future earnings like never before. (According to 2001 census data, for instance, an employed 30- to-39-year-old with a bachelor’s degree earned, on average, $48,725, while someone without a high-school diploma earned $28,167.) Consequently, there are all kinds of government and school district efforts afoot these days to keep teenagers in class. Parents in provinces such as Alberta are fined if their children skip class; employers in New Brunswick can be dinged up to $570 if they employ students during school hours; and Ontario plans to be the first province in Canada to revoke the driver’s licences of dropouts. But as much as governments try, experts say dropout-proofing your kid starts at home. And it begins as soon as your child is born.
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