It’s not dropping out, it’s building a worthy career
WITH all the concern about the pandemic plight of our Years 11 and 12 students, it seems that 10 is an unlucky number.
While clearing the pathway for our senior schoolers is – and should be – of paramount importance, the significance of the Year 10 school year seems to have been forgotten.
When I moved to the Gold Coast from Texas in 1991, I was shocked to hear so many of my new Year 9 peers discussing whether they would leave at the end of the following year.
Back in Dallas, to even consider not going to university was practically grounds for psychological treatment – there had to be something wrong in your head to consider condemning yourself to such a dark future.
But over here, at the end of Year 10 there was a mass exodus of students once they had completed their junior certificate. We even had a semi-formal to bid them farewell.
And while that seemed almost criminal to my American mind, it was absolutely the right choice for the majority of those students.
These were kids who were not stupid, but were being made to feel so as long as they persisted on the academic track. These were kids who were interested in a trade, or even who just needed some time out of the system to mature, a move that was beneficial to them and to the students left behind, who they often successfully (and hilariously) distracted.
Among my group of friends, one of the most successful is the man who was a Year 10 school-leaver. He knew studying was not his forte, but building was.
Within a few years he purchased his first house in Mermaid Beach, and then his second, and now he’s building a mansion in Burleigh Heads.
That’s not to say that every early school-leaver will taste that success, and especially not with our faltering apprenticeship pathways – there are now 150,000 fewer Australians in apprenticeships than in 2013.
But I wonder if a Year 10 “graduation” is even still presented as a viable option for current students?
The truth is that even if they just take some time out to work a “day job” for a few years, it gives them time to figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives.
Experiencing the reality of working life can provide the inspiration to eventually enrol in university like no parental lecture can achieve.
And let’s face it, if you want to study at uni, there is always a way to achieve that.
I still believe finishing Year 12 and continuing on to university is the path most likely to lead you to a job that you enjoy and that reimburses you appropriately.
Indeed, research from career-planning body Skillsroad shows young people who study beyond Year 10 are more likely to find employment, earn a higher salary and achieve promotions and pay rises. But that is no universal truth.
In fact, a Skillsroad survey also found that young people in apprenticeships and traineeships report higher levels of wellbeing than any other post-school pathway.
Pushing children to stay in a one-size-fits-all system that really doesn’t fit at all is a punishment.
In my American school cohort, where there was no option to do anything but carry on until the end lest you be tarred with the tag of high school dropout, those who should have pursued vocational training or started their climb on the job ladder were instead beaten down by the system.
Feeling like failures, they followed through with their actions, becoming disruptive, engaging in anti-social behaviour and skipping school. Forcing them to finish high school became a life sentence.
With the pandemic affecting every aspect of our lives, and especially employment, extending your child’s academic career may seem like the safest path to ride out this storm.
But I would hate to see Australia travel further down this Americanised path of limiting options. Not only does it negatively affect students in school, but after as well.
The tradie career as we know, respect and reward it here does not exist in the US. Instead, a non-professional job is an indication of a lower social status.
I’m relieved that the Morrison government has promised job seekers and school leavers $2 billion in federal support to learn new vocational skills as part of its sweeping program to tough out the recession amid deepening unemployment.
I only hope that schools and parents alike pass on this message to every senior school student beyond Year 9, especially those who are not a perfect academic “10”.
Read Ann Wason Moore every Tuesday and Saturday in the Bulletin