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Canute, the 11th-century King of England, Norway and Denmark, is reputed to have overheard some of his more obsequious courtiers assert that he, in his greatness, could order the sea itself to retreat. Irritated by such flattery, Canute had these same courtiers carry him in his throne down to the seashore and there, as the tide began to roll in, he commanded the waves to advance no further. A few minutes later, the party’s footwear sodden, Canute had made his point: there are practical limits to what even the most powerful ruler can command.
King Canute’s wisdom appears to have been lost on those who are now seeking to raise the age at which a person can legally leave school from 16 to 17. As teachers, we certainly don’t need to be convinced of the value of having students complete high school; however, we also understand that dropping out is a problem that cannot be commanded away. Simply passing a law that extends compulsory schooling by one year is unlikely to have much positive effect upon school completion rates.
Dropping out is typically a complex process, not a simple event. It is influenced by a multitude of factors inside and outside school. Sometimes dropping out is the consequence of factors and forces that extend back even before birth; sometimes it is an immediate response to a crisis or circumstances at home, often, it is a combination of the two. It follows that the first thing to understand about dropping out is that there is no single solution to this problem—instead there are a great number of policy responses that could help individual students and that collectively could shift the school completion rate in the right direction. These policies involve changing what and how we teach and also how our province and country support children and their families. Among the ideas that deserve serious consideration, followed by concerted action are the following: a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy, universally accessible junior and full-day kindergarten, identification of and effective treatment for students with mental illness, comprehensive wraparound services, mentorship and intervention programs for students at risk of dropping out, better community and family outreach for First Nations, Métis and immigrant students, encouraging employers to support school completion, and initiatives to facilitate re-entry into school or postsecondary studies.
Improving school completion rates is a difficult undertaking, but there is some cause for optimism. As Statistics Canada reports, in the last 20 years, the high school dropout rate across Canada has declined by half. In Alberta, the dropout rate has decreased from 15.7 per cent between 1990 and 1993 to 10.4 per cent between 2007 and 2010. There is also strong evidence that many students who drop out still value education and intend to continue their schooling. In fact, over half the Canadian high school students who dropped out of school between 1999 and 2007 later returned and obtained their high school diploma, and one-third moved on to postsecondary education (Fast Facts–Education, Statistics Canada, http://bit.ly/f24evx). Nevertheless the long-term cost of dropping out is so high for both student and society that this is a problem that must be taken seriously.
And this is precisely what upping the legal age of school leaving fails to do. Indeed, it may make matters worse. The danger is that having passed the required words on paper into law, our politicians will be tempted to pat each other on the back, declare “mission accomplished,” and then move on, leaving matters largely as they were before. King Canute would have known better.
(Those readers who expected a more seasonal editorial in this space are invited to visit the ATA website, www.teachers.ab.ca, where we have posted editorials from years past, including a tribute to slightly homicidal music teachers and suggestions for Christmas presents—guinea pigs anyone?)
I welcome your comments—contact me at dennis.theobald@ata.ab.ca.
