Grade 8 Graduation Sure Has Changed!

Unlike when us 'old people' graduated from Grade 8 in the early 70's, students these days, have quite the celebration! Graduating from Grade 8 in the 70's was like a double-edged sword.

While we looked forward to leaving behind our childhood for school as almost an adult, we also faced being tortured by our elder siblings and their friends, upon our arrival at High School, as we had now become"Minor Ninors", the lowest of the low! There we became the youngest students, of a much larger population called ... High School!

Well, times have certainly changed, as graduating from Grade 8 comes complete with wearing formal attire, a full Graduation Ceremony with Speeches by the Staff, the delivering of Achievement Awards, and a fancy Dance afterwards, to boot!

What a production! Months of preparation, decorating and planning! This is a celebration akin to that of any High School, College or University Graduation Ceremony that I have ever been a part of, or attended as a College Instructor.

Now, with all the trimmings, my youngest daughter had planned for two years, what she was going to wear, when her older sister graduated from Grade 8. For two years, she looked forward to this event as a major milestone in her life, and planned almost every day for the day she would graduate Grade 8.

In hindsight, sadly, it should be treated as a major milestone, by the time they have passed this year with two more years of school; with a Grade 10 education, still - far too many students, even today, never do graduate High School ... Canada still has an astonishing Drop-Out Rate of 27% is astonishing! How can that be, when the only job you can get with that kind of education is that of "Dishwasher"!

What is wrong with the educational system that it can only see 72% of it's population through to fruition? Probably still teaching the same, stupid stuff that we learned 25 years ago! You know the stuff! The "Why the Hell do I need to know if a circle can fit into a square? Teach me how to count back change to a customer, or balance my chequebook instead or how to open a bank account even, would yah?

Teach me something I'm actually going to USE when I get out into the working world!"

Yep, it's still the same. My daughter comes home complaining about the same things that used to drive me crazy as a teenager in High School, how bored she is, and how she thinks her cousin is going to quit school because she's not learning what she wants to learn or what she feels she should be learning . . .

When are the people who write these cirricullum going to realize it is time for a change to "What used to be", that it is no longer that way, and hasn't been for a long time! And then they wonder why the drop-out rate is still as staggering as it is? Get a grip, people! You'd have thought they would have learned by now that teaching kids things that have no purpose in the schools is one of the main reasons that kids quit school. Obviously, they haven't learned that yet!