There are numerous speculations that West Virginia, if not the whole Appalachian region, has the lowest high school graduation rating in the country. Some articles that I have examined went so far as to say that WV exaggerates on its graduation averages, stating that only around 85% of the beginning freshman class will complete the four years required for graduation. In reality, that total is closer to 75% with the main ethnicity being predominantly Asian at a 78%, followed by White at 73%, African American at 51%, and Native American at 27%. I find it somewhat difficult to determine which estimations are closer to the exact amount. I would like to believe that our supposed exaggeration is closer to the truth than their questionable 75-74%; I say this because I found that some of these percentages originated from outside the state. This leaves me wondering whether the given calculations given are indeed thorough, and not overly dramatized. Throughout this topic I kept asking myself, what could be causing such a low graduation percentage? The answer that I saw many times stated that students who dropped out came from socially or economically depressed backgrounds or areas where education is surprisingly undervalued. An expected annual $10,000 is separating graduates from non-graduates; with 25% of freshmen classes not graduating, this number becomes even more substantial. As an Appalachian state WV is surrounded by stereotypes, with many just pertain to our lack of intelligence. This statistic does not help are cause, and I am left wondering if just maybe the stereotypes themselves have a part to play in why people behave the way they do. Do people of Appalachia really not care about education, or is this a way of fuelling the stereotypes into persuading people into believing that this is actually a part of our culture? I like to think we are better than that, and with this new crack down on truancy, it will be interesting to see how the percentage changes in the next few years to come.
-K
8 comments:
One really does have to wonder if maybe being told our entire lives by the outside world that we're stupid rednecks has affected our willingness to work hard in school and actually graduate. But perhaps it also has to do a little bit with the fact that we are primarily a state of manual workers. Many of the people who decided that they wanted to work with their hands for a living also decided early that they didn't need school to do those jobs.
I'd like to see if you can find the /real/ graduation rate for our state and how many of the dropouts went straight into the work force.
I agree people try to fit to the sterotype of being rednecks. If you saw Morgantown, you could probably mistake it as a town in another state. The people of our town wear camo and listen to country music so they won't blend in like the other towns do. I think the graduation rate is worse in the southern counties. It just seems like a shocking percentage because dropping out is not a huge problem that we actually see in the northern counties. Why do you think kids keep dropping out? -M
WV is known for being one of the "stupider" states. If you look at the test score threshhold for qualifying as a National Merit Semifinalist, it is very low comppared to other states that have magnet and charter schools for the math and sciences. As a proud West Virginian headed for the Ivy League, I know I need to be prepared for every stupid redneck joke thrown my way, and to prove to them I am better than those stereotypes.
-M
Sorry about the removed comment. I promise it wasn't anything bad!This state has many bright students, but sadly some are weighed down by the stereotypes and do not believe in themselves. I wish people would stop the jokes, because they are getting old. The good thing is because so little is expected of us outside of West Virginia, we can prove them wrong when we have sucessful jobs. Some kids do leave high school to join the military or begin work and as long as those kids are happy with it, I can't complain. The kids that give up need encouragement to keep going, because everyone has the potential to do great things.-R
To J,
I agree that many people can find well paying jobs without a high school diploma; however, it is almost a fact that the jobs these people will be a part of are going to involve a high level of manual labor. There is pride in this and I am not one to undermine this value, I personally know many people who have dropped out of high school to pursue a more manually demanding career. I do have a problem with the individuals in this school that pretend to be something that they are not; do you agree that there are many people in this school that pretend to be rednecks when they are no more than urban sprawl? I am not sure why they do this, but if I were to take a guess I would assume that they just want to be a part of something larger than themselves, they want to have definition in this region of the world, and they might even want to be a part of the uniqueness of Appalachia. K
To K:
I have no problem with manual labor either. Many of my cousins have foregone college because they enjoy working, even manual labor.
You pose an interesting suggestion. I think a number of them really are "rednecks" but I suppose it is possible that some are pretending in order to fit in. Perhaps those who "pretend" do so to use it as an excuse. Very little is expected of rednecks in our school because teachers know they aren't going to get much out of them. Maybe they adopt the stereotype in order to get out of school work??
Sabung Ayam Pilipin
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