Name: Anonymous 2010-11-11 5:38
As the world of work has shifted economically rewarding jobs far into adulthood over the past century, it has made younger people less and less economically valuable. Consequently, we have herded them into buildings and pretend that they are using their time well. We tell them to stay there and for as many years as they can in order to become economically valuable. Instead, the real utility of keeping them in school is to keep them out of the way of the adults during the work day. Before valuable work became so ridiculously adult-oriented, youths could apprentice in some way and be useful, and better than mere children in an economy. Now work for youths is mostly limited to service jobs that are so poor that the public has come to believe that such jobs are only for such useless unskilled youth, and that no adult should do such work, and they are paid accordingly, poorly.
Now when the economy is in an exceptionally beneficial period, even the skilless youths who've only been in school previously have economic utility valuable enough that working for pay all day is more attractive than sitting in the education warehouse. So, increasing drop-out rates can be good news in such an economic environment.
Now when the economy is in an exceptionally beneficial period, even the skilless youths who've only been in school previously have economic utility valuable enough that working for pay all day is more attractive than sitting in the education warehouse. So, increasing drop-out rates can be good news in such an economic environment.