Everyone should be forced to drop out of school the day they turn 16 and enter the workforce with no parental assistance. After a year, you can choose to continue or go back to school
Posted by BosskHogg@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 64 comments
shasaferaska@reddit
That wouldn't benefit society at all.
DaSuspicsiciousFish@reddit
Hey this is r/CrazyIdeas not r/ICareAboutPeople
StarChild413@reddit
but this is also not r/IDontCareAboutPeopleJustMakingAPoint and if we want to play this game nothing belongs here
134608642@reddit
There would be some benefit for having wealthy children know what it is actually like to be poor and go without nepotism protection.
174wrestler@reddit
It will end up just like how junior-senior high school summers work today: rich kids go intern at a law firm, high achievers go work in a college research lab, everybody else gets a job at McDonalds.
134608642@reddit
If we are sticking with the without parental assistance thing seriously, then that would not be the case.
174wrestler@reddit
Still will have a similar effect: high achievers will have taken the classes necessary for advanced internships and will have the motivation (taught to them by their parents) to seek these harder jobs because they want it on their resume to get into college.
134608642@reddit
If the kid is not receiving parental help, then they would be living in a low income area with low income food and mode of transport as well as the immense stress associated with low income living. That in and of itself would be a life changing experience even if they are high acheivers with high motivation.
174wrestler@reddit
How do you think it works in adult life?
A lawyer gets paid more and it lets them live in a nice neighborhood and buy a car.
Even in college internships, business internships provide housing and transport.
Exotic_Bill44@reddit
What internships do you think are going to be open to 16-year-olds? These are kids only halfway through high school, not college juniors and seniors about to start careers. Fast food summer jobs are the jobs we trust kids that age to do, so that is what even the high achievers will be doing.
174wrestler@reddit
They have high school kids in university research labs every year, got roped into managing a few.
Brother worked for a lawyer two summers in high school.
134608642@reddit
Most internships, business or otherwise, do not. Most loans and other financial assistance are cosigned by parents. Most money flow is contributed to by parents assisting either through connections or through direct or indirect financial aid.
Most high achievers would be affected if even little. Many wealthy non-achieverd would be affected greatly. To say this would have no effect is as insane as the idea itself.
Religion_Of_Speed@reddit
Why wouldn't it? Children get a feel for what the real world is like, they will get their education put into context, they will get a break from school and earn some money doing it, we can delay their graduation by a year so that when they get to college they're that much closer to being a fully formed adult. I actually see no downside other than the break interrupting the learning process a bit.
Develop an aptitude test of sorts that sorts them into their jobs. Ideally they would all go into service/retail or something vital to keeping society running but in some cases a kid might be a perfect fit for something and they can go there.
vid_23@reddit
Kids forget nearly everything during summer break, what do you think would happen when you take them out for years? He'll most people would forget anything in a year. Just try to learn a new language, stop for a year and see how long it takes to get back to the same level where you left off.
Exotic_Bill44@reddit
Interrupting the learning process is a pretty big deal. It would mean for the kids that go back, there would likely need to be extra time spent in the junior year rehashing what they learned and forgot in their sophomore year. That would be especially true in math classes where one year's subjects build on the previous year's knowledge.
Let's also remember that "no parental assistance" means 16 year old living on their own. It means no help if they can't make rent or buy groceries. There's no one to drive the 16 year-old without a license to a doctor or even a job interview. You're going to have a lot of kids suffering needlessly.
Religion_Of_Speed@reddit
Why wouldn't it? Children get a feel for what the real world is like, they will get their education put into context, they will get a break from school and earn some money doing it, we can delay their graduation by a year so that when they get to college they're that much closer to being a fully formed adult. I actually see no downside other than the break interrupting the learning process a bit.
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Oddant1@reddit
I don't know if I agree with this specific implementation, but in principle I genuinely think society would benefit from everyone going through at least 1 year of what we consider "bottom of the totem pole" labor
StarChild413@reddit
and would that push out all the people-who-have-those-positions-as-permanent-jobs this is supposed to teach them to have empathy for to have room for everyone
lawirenk@reddit
I would agree except for the fact that a gap year for highschool students would mean forgetting knowledge next for the next level classes and force students to get back into the rhythm of studying and learning.
The summer off already does a number on students.
everythingisabattle@reddit
They can barely read out of high school as it is so why 16?
NotYourMommyEither@reddit
I’m down with it. They should have to live in the woods for a year too. Alone and unassisted. Those who survive, and choose to return, will have earned their place in society by proving that they don’t need it.
Great_Stranger3954@reddit
That is a interesting question
PlayPretend-8675309@reddit
You've discovered the British school system
CookingZombie@reddit
Why not just a mandatory gap year between high school and college? Minors with no parental assistance is a problem. But yeah if I’d have worked food service before college I’d have tried a lot harder.
Sea_Guest_8830@reddit
What about poor people who can't afford to not be working or attending school?
CookingZombie@reddit
I did mean they spend that year working and not going to school. And can’t afford to not be in school is flying over my head.
Sea_Guest_8830@reddit
Then by definition it's not mandatory
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Gap year is when rich kids deferring admission for a year to travel, then starting at a prestigious undergrad. That requires parental support. A year off to work is an interesting idea that would probably benefit a lot of potential college freshman.
CookingZombie@reddit
Ah thanks sounded like right words. Yeah I mean a year in between where you just work service jobs.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Yeah, I think the term has been co-opted, but traditionally it’s a British thing, and that’s what it is. Now it means just not going to college right away, I guess? But the whole point of a gap year is that you’ve already been accepted to college and you’re deferring for a year to do something else. I like your idea better of having kids get jobs after high school, and figuring our what they want to do before they go balls deep into student loans for an academic track that they aren’t sure of.
9bikes@reddit
>But yeah if I’d have worked food service before college I’d have tried a lot harder.
Most everyone would benefit working a shitty job for a short period of time. You'd pretty quickly learn "I want to do something better than this.".
I had a boss who told his dad that he didn't want to go to college. His dad said "Fine. I'll help you find a job.".
His dad found him a job alright. Workin' on a shrimp boat in the Gulf. Hot, hard, physical work away from friends and activates he enjoyed. Lots of nasty, smelly stuff caught in the fishing nets. Shrimp for every meal. If you started out liking shrimp, you soon wouldn't. Plus, he was a Jewish kid. His family wasn't strict about keeping kosher, but he grew up with an aversion to eating shrimp.
After just one Summer on the shrimp boat, he decided he did want to go to college after all! He ended up getting a Masters degree.
The_Arch_Heretic@reddit
Maybe if it was politicians instead of 16 yr olds.
satoshisfeverdream@reddit
Cool dumb idea
Countess26@reddit
I was just thinking today how wonderful it would be if every citizen had to take on a civil servant job as a teen so they would gain valuable skills and appreciate how things are run, get done, and could be made better.
Sad-Celebration-7542@reddit
lol so starve some kids. Smart!
MaxwellSmart07@reddit
You chose the correct sub.
FreedomsLastBreathe@reddit
Really just need to de-stigmatize going to trade school or community college before uni. Looking back, I wish I did 2 years CC and then went to uni. Cheaper, clears general ed credits, allows time to find what you like and then easy transfer to a uni for upper div.
awesomefutureperfect@reddit
No, the gap should be between elementary school and high school. Those middle schoolers are little monsters that should not be around each other but around adults that won't put up their their crap. and then, yeah, they can come back as teenagers ready to become young adults.
at1stpromise@reddit
It’s called vocational schooling. At my high school your junior and senior year you had the option to do vocational training which are up 4 out of the 7 periods in the day.
Exotic_Bill44@reddit
That's far from the same thing. Kids taking a vocational curriculum still get core education subjects. More importantly, they aren't removed from parental care. This premise suggests that the child should have to live on their own without parental help. It also makes no claim that the job site has to provide any training or education to the child.
SCP-iota@reddit
It could be good for people to learn early on what it's like to have no help, but wouldn't this squish all the core education into fewer years? Would there be a way for people who previously chose not to resume education to finish it later in life if they changed their minds?
1337k9@reddit
A year is needlessly long. One summer is sufficient duration for a sample of the “real” world.
ThirdSunRising@reddit
16 year olds can’t work most jobs and can’t get an apartment so this will be… interesting.
I predict a lot of those kids will turn to prostitution. Because it’ll be that or face homelessness.
But yeah you’re definitely posting it in the right sub
Ateist@reddit
...or they'll marry and live off the husband/wife.
ThirdSunRising@reddit
Well that’s another name for it…
ThisPostToBeDeleted@reddit
Can you explain your logic here?
agitatedprisoner@reddit
Then in the USA we'd have even more school shootings after all the friendless 16 year olds realize it wasn't just their particular school and classmates and that the world really does hate them and has no place for them in it. Your choice is to go back to a school where everyone thinks you're worthless scum or to panhandle. Surely that could only end well. The USA is a terrible place.
VinegarMyBeloved@reddit
The day they turn 16? How would the school calendar work? And who’s taking them?
Revolutionary-Copy71@reddit
Are you friends with the "every one should go to prison when they turn 18" guy, by chance?
Pristine-Ad260@reddit
College Education should start at 15 and have a degree when you graduate high school
JohnnyAverageGamer@reddit
Try being disabled and posting this
monstertruck567@reddit
Were invisible.
JohnnyAverageGamer@reddit
I am 22 and just starting to get into the workforce because I have autism and I cannot fathom what would've happened if I had been forced into the workforce with no assistance by neurotypical people who have it way easier
monstertruck567@reddit
I’m at the other end of the game. 53 and forced out of work by long COVID.
Best wishes.
Anubis-Hound@reddit
Yes! We need more crazy shit like this in this sub! Increase the insanity!
134608642@reddit
Part of the uniform for the forced work year is to have a gerbile in your pants.
Beautiful-Lie1239@reddit
Chairmanship Mao tried that in the 1960s. Even he admitted that was too shit crazy of an idea.
P0Rt1ng4Duty@reddit
People with advanced degrees and specialties are having trouble supporting themselves right now, if we did this almost all of the kids would die of exposure.
Unindoctrinated@reddit
That would have been feasible \~50 years ago. Not now, at least not in most western countries.
getahaircut8@reddit
So secular rumspringa
slfnflctd@reddit
I think there will always be some kids who basically do this voluntarily.
It probably happened more often with my GenX peers than it does now in the US, but I don't think the number is zero if you look at the whole world.
Everyone should want to go back to school at some point, in my opinion. It's just a matter of whether you have the time, energy and money to do it. If not, then, y'know... live your life! There are tons of free resources for learning new things and improving your situation.
ddollarsign@reddit
i think you would have people returning and repeating 11th grade an infinite number of times
Useful_Calendar_6274@reddit
I have thought the exact same thing. but at 13. then you keep funding school for 115 iq plus people. it's a waste of fucking time and money for everyone else