It is human nature to point fingers at others for blame. People as young as toddlers do it all the time. But do people really turn to look at themselves for the blame? Very rarely. After all, it’s just easier to claim someone else caused the problem. In the case of the recent spike in dropouts, many automatically blame the teachers. After all, the students are around teachers all the time so they must be a factor in this whole situation. I mean, it certainly couldn’t be the individual student themselves or their lives outside of the school. It is simply unheard of!

People always seem to blame the teachers or the school board, but never bother looking at the individual and their life. Teachers are not there with the teen at their home. They are not there when the child is with their friends. Some would argue that, “The teacher influenced the child with their own thoughts and opinions!”

What are these kids, five years old? How can a teenager in high school be so easily influenced by an adult? If they could be influenced so easily, why not just influence them to work harder, do better, and stay in school in order to fix this dilemma? If it were that easy, then we wouldn’t be having the problems we are having now in this state.

Here’s where you have to wonder about this high school dropouts: where are their parents? Where do the people who are raising them step in? Now, I’m not saying it’s all the parents fault, because it’s not (unless they use permissive parenting techniques and don’t care what the child does).

What many fail to realize is the other factors that play in dropout ratings: teen pregnancy, teen marriage, bullies, no stability at home, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. At Lawrence High specifically, there is a good sum of students who are in foster care. They rarely have real parental guidance in those situations, so who are they are learn from?

Personal responsibility takes a huge role in the dropout rates as well. Who is responsible for studying, turning in homework, and trying their best in classes? The teachers? Now that just sounds silly, if I do say so myself. From those students I have seen, I’ve noticed that they like to rebel against teachers request to do their homework or class work. The student typically just sneers or scoffs at the teacher, then returns to their nap on the desk. They’re thinking, “Hey, I do need to do that stuff. Doesn’t bother me.” Who are the students hurting? The teachers or themselves? I’m sure you can all figure out that answer.

I do not believe there is a sure-fire way to help reduce the number of dropouts because there are so many reasons as to why they are quitting in the first place. Now, perhaps there can be a few more programs that helps deal with people going through situations or those who want to make a change. The Bullies to Buddies program is a good example of a school activity that can help. The only problem with those programs is because there are still going to be students who don’t care about anything of that sort, so they won’t go.

Either way, it all comes down to the individual. Do they want to really use perseverance and push the tough times of high school, or throw in the towel halfway through. It’s time to take personal responsibility, and that goes for everyone.