Opinion: My Daughter's a High-School Dropout and I'm Totally Okay With It

I agree! My In~Laws such as they are always pressed on going to school.They are the most heartless people Ive meet! As well as my husband.They feel that because a few of my 8 Children dropped out made me a very bad Mommy to my Children! I don't post to this type of thing,However this one hit home! My mom used to say,I would rather take Common Sense rather than all the Brains in this world! ya know what she was and is right today!

Brave, strong and smart..both mom and daughter. What a great article. I thank-you.

Wow some of you people are just plan mean. These are concerned parents that are sharing a part of their child's life with us, and a few of you just basically called them bad parents. Well then again they do not teach proper manners and social skills in high school.

I just wanted to say I think it's great that you guys care so much about your children and want to do what is right for them. I didn't drop out of high school, but instead finished school early; it just was not working for me. I spent my time assisting a family member who was in need until I was 18 then went off to college. I have a BA and I am working on a Master's in Classical Archaeology.

You just have to help your child find what it is that they love in life. As long as they are healthy and doing something they love I believe their life will be more fulfilled.

Unbelieveable.... I can't believe how often I hear parents say they can't make their child attend school, study, or sit in a car seat. You are the adult (parent), not them. You can make them, but you all refuse to spend the energy to get it done. You children will go through life thinking they can just do what they want.

Can we say white trash! What a good parent to support her kid for sitting at home and not dealing with life! This one will end up an unwed mother who lives off the state! Mother and daughter need to grow up and deal with life! We complain about illegal immigrants who are working and living off the state, but yet this useless parent can let here kid not finish school and do the same and its OK! What a country we have nowadays.

I agree with you!! Although very intelligent my son was pigeonholed by the school system in our area as having a behavior disorder because he was ADHD. When putting him in "other" classes and moving him to an alternative high school didn't work we both decided that he would work on his GED and he passed with flying colors. That was almost 15 years ago and although his life may have been different if he'd been a leming he's happy, enjoys what he does for a living (how many people can say that???), owns his house and has no debts I think he's much better for what he did and I'm very proud of him.

My Father threw in the towel when I quit high school at 17 (in my senior year). He had been alternately supportive and confused. I spent my childhood watching my Mother display amazing vitality in spite of lymphal sarcoma. Our roles reversed and I bathed and fed her toward the end of her life. The friends I made were all older and, honestly, how do you identify with the petty stuff that kids your age your age are immersed in under those circumstances anyway. I walked my own path and eventually wound up getting my GED at 40. I'm 53 now and there are things I wish I could do differently, but graduating with my classmates when I was 17 isn't one of them. I guarantee you I fully appreciate a lifestyle that many of the kids I went to high school with couldn't fathom. If you're lucky, you never stop learning. There are all kinds of education available to us for a happy, successful lives, and high school or college diplomas are just options, not imperatives. The world needs well adjusted baristas too. Look closer... they might just surprise you.

My son is a college drop out who had an opportunity to own his own tire business. He's successful and happy at 30. My daughter is a high school drop out who is a gifted hairdresser with a huge clientele, aspiring to own her own salon by the time she's 30. She is successful and happy. They are both self-motivated and high achievers and love what they do!!

Hear, Hear!!!! When I began to teach Middle School, I was dumb-funded at how narrow curriculum is! I'm sure that I can speak for the rest of the country because, all we're supposed to be doing is to prepare kids for college! Today, college grad's often graduate into jobs that pay LESS than those in the blue collar sector. Plus, they've studied to be so specialized as to have a hard time finding work! I'm a Special Ed teacher, although, I've taught general ed. as well. It's the same on both ends of the spectrum. To add to the problem, students who severe learning disabilities are forced into cookie cutter curricula to meet the same goals as students with "average" learning styles. The reality is that many of these students who are treated as- and feel like- 2nd-class citizens, academicly, are often very talented in the arts and other creative areas! Yet, we have no real way to make accommodations, because only standard curricula are accepted as THE material to teach! To have ADD, as well as Dysgraphia, must be one of the MOST frustrating combinations of disabilities!! I applaud both mom and daughte for having the courage to make this choice- instead of the usual broken self esteem of students who only know to struggle upstream in a losing battle!

My daughter also dropped out of high school.. She was having a really hard time with the peer crap and just wasn't doing well...She got her ged and then went to "beauty school". She was the youngest to ever graduate from this acadamy ..she now has her own business and is the proud Mom of Twin boys!! Myself, I wish I had been allowed to drop out.. I am 42 and I cannot think of anything that actually prepared me for the Real world.

I did, in fact 'drop out' of high school. I finished high school through a home-schooling program at 16 years old. I thought I was ready for college, wanted to get away from my parents, wanted to live a little...here I am, 10 years later, and working towards an associate's degree. I wish I had maybe postponed college a little. I completely agree, high school was crap - I was an accelerated student and I wasn't challenged. I was bored. The only thing that held my interest was band and music classes. I graduated valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA with 12 strangers. I went to college to study art. I dropped out. I got cancer. I went back to school. I got pregnant. I dropped out. Now I'm back, dealing with the difficulties of being a full time student AND a full time stay at home mom. It's hard, because looking back, I could have had a PhD by now. But some lessons are better learned the absolute hardest way possible, and for me, I think that's the only way I was going to figure it out for myself.
I think the mother in this piece is doing the right thing. Just being there for you kid as they figure their own way is probably the best way.

This is only great when you have parents who can support your lazy butt. Why should a teenager reap the benefits of someone else's hard labor? This disgusts me.

I thought a High School Equivalency Test passed, means you have the degree. Why couldn't she go to college at some point in the future with that in her hand?

Amen to both of you for helping your child-young adult through this tough decision. When we divert from being inside of the box it is never easy. The consequences of other peoples opinions should not be the driving force of our decisions! The "norm" that our world has created for all of us to conform to as we go through the ages needs to keep up with the times. 4 walls and an instructor standing up front was created for the industrial ages. We have moved on, so should the style and choices of education for our children.

Well, Annie's mother is certainly using a favored defense mechanism - Rationalization - regarding her 17 year old daughter's choice of dropping out of school. If it makes mom feel better so be it. However, I contend the day will soon come when they both rue the day they made that choice. Some people will do and say anything to get the public's attention and this is a classic example. So much irony in all of this.
Lynn Hutton, Glen Allen, Va.

I dropped out a sophomore. My mother kicked me out because I was doing drugs, stealing money, not working, not going to school. It was the toughest choice she ever made. She had two more babies to raise; her words. I ended up on the streets in a homeless shelter strung out on just about every illegal substance known to man. I eventually enlisted in the Navy 1999, I was 21 ( detoxed in bootcamp ). I have 4 tours, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, I was off the coast of New York on 9-11 which was my birthday. I am currently a sophomore in collage and done with the service. I have been going to school off and on since 2002. I had to start out in the 990 classes to finish my Highschool education equivalent. I am now a sophomore in collage. I will have my associates in Aviation Maintenance technologies in December. My Mothers choice was the best parenting choice she ever made.
I love her for it! It made me a man.