So secondary school, highschool, or whatever you call it, is about the last mandatory schooling a kid in a country has to take or there will be “consequences”. Now, there is though a time where it is not illegal and you can drop out, so for here in America, you typically have to be 17-18 and still in school decide whether you want to continue or not.
There is a lot of stigma over this sort of topic, for a number of reasons:
people think dropping out of school is equal to:
being stupid
well, that’s it really. A lot of people tend to think it means they suck, or that person will go nowhere. Which in most cases, are untrue. Some people who’ve dropped out of high school became billionares.
There’s all sorts of reasons to drop out of highschool and I don’t judge anyone who does it. Honestly I just think people should really consider the outcomes of staying in highschool compared to dropping out of it.
To me, you can still be successful, happy, and a smart person, highschool and whether you finished it or not, does not dictate who you are as a human being.
Questions I have:
Where you attend school, within that country, are you able to drop out? (Quit school.)
At what age are you able to, if so?
What cons are there to dropping out?
What pros are there?
What do you think about people who drop out? Would you ever?
I don’t judge anyone for dropping out if need be but I do really think they should stay in because that’s really an achievement. If you don’t want to go to college, that’s great! Don’t go. College can be a big waste of time and money for some people.
I’ve just heard that a lot of people that drop out regret it and usually end up doing some work to get that certification back.
But I don’t think it’s because they’re “stupid” or stupid for dropping out. Sometimes they might just have other jobs or this other huge responsibility at home like helping run a huge farm or something with not as well up to date technology. Or someone may have experienced something incredibly traumatic like losing a loved one. Maybe a teenage girl gets pregnant and she has to drop out/feels the need to drop out to take care of her family.
I don’t judge any of these reasons or any reason a person might drop out but I do still strongly think that they should finish high school if at all possible to say they’ve done it and have that certification so that in the future they don’t have to do more work to get it again.
It doesn’t reflect a problem with them, more of an issue with the school system in general, if you drop out (where I’m from you can’t anymore) it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you and sadly a lot of peoples reasons for dropping out was the school not adjusting to their learning struggles or they were bullied out either by kids or the teachers themselves. Yes, some people who drop out have a plan, but that doesn’t mean the ones who don’t are “stupid” they just knew they couldn’t excell in their environment.
Austria has slightly complicated rules for this. You have to have 9 years of education but you don’t have to go to school for those 9 years, your parents teaching you is fine as well (you just have to take a test at the end) If you’re in school and reach those 9 years, you can do whatever you want.
Many jobs require some further education but many also offer their own educational programm, so if you’re okay with starting off with a low-paying job, you’re good.
No school? Your own money
I wouldn’t and I didn’t, because I wanted to go to university after finishing school. However, some people just aren’t made for this and have different interests. If you hate studying/school in general and already know you can work where you want to work, why continue going to school?
@Students What’s you opinion on dropping out of high school?
Same views I had before, kinda. I try not to judge people for dropping out because our system sucks, but if you finish it you’ll probably have less problems in the future. Although I don’t know for sure about stuff.
Short answer, it depends here in the Netherlands. Most cases no.
Short answer: 18
Long answer: We have something called ‘leerplicht’ (leer=study/education plicht=obligation). This means you are required to be in high school until you are 16 at least. However, between 16 and 18 there is the ‘kwalificatieplicht’ (kwalificatie=qualification), this is quite complicated to explain. We have different levels of high school MAVO (‘lowest’ level and 4 years), HAVO (‘average’ level and 5 years) and VWO (‘highest’ level and 6 years). For the kwalificatieplicht you either need a HAVO or VWO diploma, or a continuation degree of MAVO called MBO. On average only people who do VWO can be old enough to actually drop out in their last year of high school, but those numbers are really small cause why study like 5/6 years to drop out so close before your exams.
It’s hard to find a good job without any proof of education at all
For some people education just isn’t right, so it can give those people a lot of mental health benefits and also freedom.
If you have a very good reason, I guess I understand. But in the context of the Dutch system, it just seems a bit stupid to me to not just finish the last months of high school.
Nope, never. Education is important to me… It never even crossed my mind when I had the chance to drop out.
