Getting A Ged
Q. There was a time when I could not conceive of telling a student that he/she should get a GED and drop out of school. After 10 years of teaching I've changed my mind. It was about 5 years ago that I, after LONG discussions with the student's parents, admitted that getting a GED may be the best course of action for their son. That was a VERY trying time .. I never thought I could do such a thing. Now, I agree that "...School isn't everyone's cup of tea ..." and I've grown to accept that there is a class of students who simply won't make it through high school, no matter how hard I try, it's just not going to happen that they will graduate. Have you ever been faced with this? Under what circumstances would you admit that ... well .. he/she should probably go ahead and get their GED and get into the working world. When? At the 9th grade level (yep, I've seen it)? 10th Grade? etc ...
A. This was the one thing that inner city students had over the suburban kids. They instinctively knew when they didn't want to attend school any more, and automatically enrolled in the GED program. A simple conference with the guidance: "You can't go on like this, getting suspended every day, threatening the teachers, etc. We have a GED prohgram if you can't control yourself in school." This was the last resort- after they had been in and out of the regular school, then the alternative school, and back. Sometimes it was a cycle from school to jail, to school, to alternative school. Nothing seemed to work UNTIL someone told them about GED. Older teens, people in their twenties; those who gave everyone such a hard time in the day, became *angels* and model citizens at night. No discipline problems, no cursing the teachers, no bringing the drugs into the schools. It was as if they knew this was their last chance. No one had to tell them to do this. One day a kid was getting into trouble for fighting, cursing, weapons, etc in day school; the next he or she was getting *A*'s at night and getting the GED. The secret was that if they got kicked out of GED there was no where else to go. By that time most were 19 or 20 and legally could be simply eliminated from the school system. The GED program in the city worked better and was better organized than the regular district, in spite of the fact that the night school was run by the same people and administrators as the regular schools. I taught there for a few years and had a great time with these students. In fact, for several years I taught chem lab for students who had flunked it in regular school, dropped out, then wanted to turn their lives around to become nurses, orderlies, etc. You wouldn't believe the turnaround! We accomplished more in the two hours a week there than they did all year in regular school. Several went on to college and by that time they appreciated school a lot more than if they had stuck around causing trouble all the time.
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There was a time when I could not conceive of telling a student that he/she should get a GED and drop out of school. After 10 years of teaching I've changed my mind. It was about 5 years ago that I, after LONG discussions with the student's pare...