Lawrence High has the highest dropout rate in the state of Kansas. Some people say that it is just normal for a liberal town. I disagree. There are a few factors that can affect the dropout rate. Ethics, length of school, and parent involvement in a student’s life can make all the difference.

In the days where dropping out of school was unheard of, the classroom was completely different from now. In those days, ethics was a large part of the teacher’s lessons. If someone was disrespectful to teachers or other students, they were disciplined for it. The basic life skills of respect, honestly and integrity were taught. Nowadays, students think cheating is OK as long as you don’t get caught. One isn’t required to put hard work into school because of cheating, so they take less pride in their work and therefore do not care about the quality of the job done or even if it is finished. This lack of motivation is a large part of the dropout rate problem.

The length of the school year is another major problem. Most of the student body’s parents remember the days where school was dismissed the weekend of Memorial Day and did not start until after Labor Day. The fact that students barely have a two-month summer break heavily factors into the dropout rate. Studies say that students loose much of what they learned over the summer. But without this break students become burnt out on school, which gives those more of a reason to drop out. As the urban population grows, the need for students to be out of school during the summer becomes more of a social need then a family necessity. Yet there are still a number of students who live on farms and are busy all summer working on these farms. Going back to school so early puts more of a strain on them and their families to get all the work that needs to be done completed by the time school starts. Many of these students are also active in 4-H and with school starting closer and closer to the fair, their thoughts of drop out become higher because they are simply needed at home.

And the last major cause of Lawrence High’s dropout rate is because of parental involvement, or the lack thereof, in a students life.

There are a number of reasons that can be the cause of Lawrence High’s higher dropout rate. If real life skills of ethics were emphasized more the dropout rate would surely drop. And if summer was longer to give students a true break, and if parents were an active part in a student’s life then I believe one would see a great change in Lawrence High School’s dropout rate.