Despite the advancements in our society, we teachers as well as the entire community is still not assured that all our young are fully educated. There have been studies showing that fewer than half of the 9th graders in many of the country’s biggest cities ever graduate. The studies evidently show that the dropout rate is not decreasing particularly for poor and minority students.

Interestingly, despite the dropout rates, the formal plans to address the problems are lacking. As teachers, because we do not have the access to financial solutions, we can still do something amazing for the students so that if ever they seem to be possible candidates for dropping, we may be able to save them from doing so.

One very effective way is to teach students motivation. You can help them understand that the school will be completely necessary to surviving and thriving in the new millennium. While the community and the schools expect youth and children to think and act as though school is important, it seems we have never really teach them to believe that.

Here are some compelling strategies to convince even the most uninterested student to stay in school.

1. This is a boom. Ask students if they will ever need to work. Show them that before, about 100 years ago, factory work was the booming job, and it required no education. But this is not so today. The booming job as employment in the computer field grows at a rate of 77%  while factories are progressively more automated. Therefore, factories will be run by computers and most computer-related jobs require education and at least a high school diploma.

2. Ask students which century they will be prepared for. While education was not needed during the 1900 when the most common jobs were farm laborer and domestic servant, today, education and diploma are usually required when 6 out of 10 people work in a store or office.

3. Play the “Replace Me” Game. Ask the students to name jobs and businesses that they can always do without a diploma. List their responses on the board. Next, ask the students to plan a way that the employee could be replaced like the coming trend in fast food is to use computers instead of people running the restaurant. The students should now discover and understand that most jobs that lack education and diploma requirements may be ready for automation.

It is all a matter of helping your students sees the reality of life, not to threaten them but to encourage and motivate them to strive and persevere and see school not as compulsory but a need and something that they deserve.

By: BERNARDITO B. CADATAL | Teacher II | Sta. Rosa Elementary School | Sta. Rosa, Pilar, Bataan