Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505250007
SECTION: EDITORIALS PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If youngsters who make a habit of skipping school remain adrift, they will be swept along into more serious trouble - with the law, with drugs, with an unwise pregnancy - or simply swept aside, falling too far behind to catch up with their classmates. All too often, they will end up dropping out of high school and facing the kinds of dead-end choices that waste lives.
The time to intervene can be when they are as young as kindergarteners. One of the eye-opening stories in this newspaper's recent three-part series "School's In/They're Out: Truancy in Roanoke" is that of a sixth-grader who had had 18 unexcused absences during the first semester this school year. She had missed 47 days in kindergarten, a pattern of unexcused absences that was repeated year after year.
She wasn't getting into mischief, really. She was sneaking back home and watching television. But she wasn't learning to read, either.
Hardly the too-cool-for-school, street-wise teen-ager - though there are plenty of those, too, slipping away from school.
If truancy is the start of so many problems, the beginning of the end of so many dreams, how can the community effectively intervene?
To start, the public and the city school system might make a sensible acknowledgement of the problem. Roanoke schools are putting what appear to be some good programs into place, but the district doesn't keep truancy records. It needs to know the extent of the problem to make a reasonable response - and to know if its efforts are effective.
The business community can get involved with apprenticeships and work/study programs that could open some young eyes to the realities of the work world, where having that diploma does matter. A diploma shows a prospective employer, for example, that an individual can successfully complete something, and won't quit when the work gets hard.
Parents can be aware of what their children are doing, and care. Other people can volunteer as mentors or tutors.
Everyone's efforts will come to naught, of course, if the students themselves don't take responsibility for making choices that will keep them out of the undertow. Tough as life may be for some, they don't quite grasp that this is as easy as it's going to be. These are the last years when adults will spend so much time trying to teach, to inspire, to reach out and nudge them into safe waters. They must at least try to swim.
Many of these "street smart" kids know a lot about how to get by at their age, with their peers, in their place - and almost nothing about getting by in the larger world.
One fellow who dropped out two years ago has some regrets, the series reported, but he figures he'll get his GED, join the military and get training that will lead to a good job. We checked out his prospects. They're not bright.
The Army's enlistment standards change with its manpower needs, and these days it can afford to be selective. Most of its recruits must have at least a high-school diploma. To be exact: For this month, the recruiting battalion whose coverage area includes Southwest Virginia and parts of three other states is seeking 183 recruits, of whom only six or seven can have GEDs.
If only along about ninth or 10th grade, kids could get a life-experience transplant.
by CNB