The Best Thing of All is to Learn… Your Mind is Yours Forever

I never really considered schools to be a deciding factor on where to live when my children were young.  I knew they had the preschool experience; I taught them both to read before kindergarten.  During summer vacations from school they had “vacation school” on our porch every day.  We did our own version of SOL’s.  I know what you are thinking; my children did not have the summer vacation their peers had.

We did have summer vacation trips. We went camping at Rehoboth Beach.  We camped at Watkins Glen.  They went to Disney.  There were no history lessons just plain ole’ fun on vacation too.  When it came to 3 months away from education, the answer was no… we do school work during the summer.

Lately the  news reports are focusing on schools that are not meeting their qualifications or high school graduation rates of a school being above or below the state average.  I also am aware of the increasing trend to celebrate each milestone in a child’s life.  My daughter teaches in the City of Richmond where families celebrate 5^th grade graduation as we celebrate our high school graduates.  My daughter explains that many of the students do not graduate high school. 

While attending a garden high school graduation party at my friend’s house I could not stop thinking how foreign the idea that my child would not graduate high school is.  My grandson graduated preschool and he will begin kindergarten in the fall.  I fully expect him to graduate high school and attend college or some type of technical school afterwards.  I even started a college fund for him. 

My inquisitive mind started a search for graduation rates of local high schools and the City of Richmond.  Locally, Tunkhannock High School has a 94% graduation rate where as Trail High School has 87% and Elk Lake High School has a graduation rate of 79%.  I expanded my search to Scranton High School at 91% and West Scranton also at 91% graduation rate.  Abington High School has a graduation rate of 92% and GAR has a rate of 84% which is comparable to Honesdale High School with a rate of 85%.  PA high school graduation rate is 88%.  Sadly, high schools in the City of Richmond have a graduation rate of 52% and incredibly, one of Richmond’s high schools has a graduation rate of only 27%.  Virginia’s state graduation rate is 77%. 

I now understand why 5^th grade graduation is celebrated in Richmond.  I know some of my grandson’s kindergarten classmates may not make it to high school graduation.  I find that fact very sad.  There are theories why some schools are failing while others thrive.  Theories point to the school’s administration, teachers, budgets, curriculum, family make up, environment and even the children.  You can search the web to find all the theories, it does not change that for many, high school graduation is not a guarantee and maybe an actual struggle to obtain.

If you are attending a graduation or a graduation party this summer, celebrate that graduate! It really is an accomplishment.