How would you try to convince a teenager to finish high school?

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   Stina Caxeposted 11 years ago

   How would you try to convince a teenager to finish high school?

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   Wilbart26posted 11 years ago

   I think let the kid experience the real world. Let him/her experience how hard it is to live without education, in a world that is too complex and requires much more knowledge in different things and requires a different level of education. Words are not enough to convince someone about something that they hate at present. Try finding movies that will motivate the child. Show him/her what is needed to be done. Be a good example. Bee a peer. The environment and the peer affects an individual a lot. If you think that his/her environment is not good enough and the peer is not  a good example, then you should let him/her see a different type of environment. An environment that you think will be good for the kid. Be also a peer. However, at the same time, do not take away his/her freedom of being with his peers that he already grew up with. Don't take away the environment that he already adapted with since he was born. Just go there and mix with them yourself and try to make a bit of a change in that world. By that you'll not influence one, but many of them.
   
   Have you tried a different technique? Have you ask him/her what's the problem? Did you have time to bond with the kid? Have you already heard the side of the kid? And so man questions, but only one answer.... And the answer still lies within you. No matter what words or advice I give you here. Your still the one that needs to figure it out, and the kid must be the one to change and discover how to finish it on his own. No one can help him/her the most but him/her self. The decision or the final decision should I say is still at the kids hands, so that no one is to blame in the near future.

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   1. 79

      Stina Caxeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      All valid advice.  Thank you for answering.  Luckily this is not an issue I currently have to deal with at the moment.  It's funny, I finished high school because I didn't have another option.  There is no way my mother would have let me quit!

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3. 71

   Rhonda_Mposted 11 years ago

   As someone who has taught in college bridging programs, I have encountered older adults who did not finish high school.  They were too cool for school, or perhaps the system failed them (that can be the case for a lot of bright but troubled people). Many ended up in dead ended jobs, miserable and frustrated, then returned to college while having to make a living to pay for it. It doesn't get easier as you get older. Tell your teenager that the educational bar to getting decent work is getting higher all the time, and unless the person is truly exceptional, he/she will be doomed to a life of Mcjobs, call centers and long periods of unemployment.
   
   Sometimes, though, they need to go out and experience it for themselves first hand before they make their own choices. Maybe a year off after highschool might work better. Nowadays more kids are taking a gap year before deciding what to do next.

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      Wilbart26posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, I do not know what is happening in the world right now... Education is important just like what my hub in education is all about... Hay.... I wish that one day when we wake up, everything will be fine...

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   2. 79

      Stina Caxeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Great advice!  It certainly doesn't get easier as you get older.  Although I do have to say I think I am more focused now as an adult than I was as a teenager.  But I wish I had finished college when I was younger in stead of going back a decade late

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   3. 71

      Rhonda_Mposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The older students in my classes are always the best because they are most focused and have lots of life experience, but unfortunately, also have many competing priorities that make being a student more challenging

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      Wilbart26posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      O yes, the more mature the better, but the problem is the time/schedule... Sometimes, they are forced to be in a situation where they need to choose between studies and other priorities. I experienced that during my days in my Master's degree.

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      Rhonda_Mposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Me too, it was a struggle to do the Masters, but I did it. I had way more empathy for my students after that...

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   lburmasterposted 11 years ago

   Drive them to the bad part of town and explain what kind of jobs they hold. Not only will they finish high school, they will go for college too.

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   1. 79

      Stina Caxeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Good idea!

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   danajconnellyposted 11 years ago

   I wouldn't put the emphasis on "finishing" but more on embracing high school. Its one of the last times in life when your options are still open. Do they need to be an athlete, an academic, a performer? No. They need to try everything and anything that interests them. While there may be factors that make dropping out appealing in the moment, they will eventually come to regret not finishing, not taking that opportunitiy to excel and be better than they thought they could be.

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   paxwillposted 11 years ago

   Perhaps with negative reinforcement.  Show them examples of people who did not even finish high school, and who are now faced with very limited options.

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7. 68

   CrescentSkiesposted 11 years ago

   "Get your butt in gear and your nose in that book or I will throw you out of this house and I won't be paying the medical bills when you hit the tree."
   
   That'll teach the brat

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      Stina Caxeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      LOL!  That is fantastic!

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   PegCole17posted 11 years ago

   Take them on a tour of the poor side of town and explain to them that working hard is not as important as working smart. Without an education they will end up working a lot of hours for little money. It has nothing to do with their value as a human being, rather, it is based on their contribution in terms of what they do with their brain.

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