Dropping out of high school is something I’ve heard about, but it really hasn’t affected me — not until now. Over the course of the semester I have had two students drop out, with another on his way out the door. When I was in high school, few students dropped out, thus, there wasn’t a large impact on me.

Now, as an educator-in-training, I am faced with this very real-life problem. According to the North Carolina Department of Instruction, a total of 23,550 students, or 5.24 percent, of the students in grades nine through 12 dropped out of North Carolina schools in the 2006-07 academic year. This number compares 9.5 percent nation wide for 2005-06, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

These numbers are sad and depressing, and they have really hit home as I am seeing my students become part of a heartbreaking statistic.

When a student drops out, or is in the process, it tears at me because I know the quality of lives they more than likely will lead. As they are giving up on their education, they are putting themselves on a path to no where.

Many questions go through my mind as these students exit the school for the last time. Why are they dropping out? Where are the parents? Why aren’t the parents helping their child pursue high school graduation? What could schools do to help these students?

As one of my students is currently planning on leaving his education, I feel our current educational system isn’t helping these at-risk students. The constant testing atmosphere of education is having adverse effects on many students, leading them to give up and drop out.

Since I am a student teacher, I feel as if my hands are loosely tied behind my back as to how I could help these students. I would love to do more to keep these students engaged in the educational process. However, knowing I will be leaving my school in less than a month, the door to be able to do something is quickly coming to a close.

I don’t enjoy seeing students leave school, regardless of how many headaches they give me. While there are those students that get on my nerves because they aren’t making an attempt to learn, they still care enough to not want to drop out. Even if the student is in the class, I know there is a chance they might learn something that will help them out in the “real world.”

Students dropping out of high school should not happen. This is a problem that must be addressed and more should be done to solve this growing crisis. You may not be directly affected by students dropping out, but everyone should strive to see students succeed with their educations.

I hope that, if you’re not in education, you never experience the feeling that I’ve felt as one of my students takes the first step of throwing away their future by walking out the door to the school — forever.

Sources:National: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16 NC DPI: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/newsroom/news/2007-08/20080207-01