How to convince your parents to let you drop out of school

I’m going to cut to the chase because there’s a lot I can say from personal experience because of how I dropped out. Story for another day. Mine is a special cause. I’m a hypocrite though, because the first time a tried to convince my parents to let me drop out, I didn’t do any of what I’m telling you to do here.

So pay attention and don’t be like me.

Dropping out to get your GED is a tedious process because a lot of parents remain blissfully ignorant of what exactly dropping out means for the drop out and what you can accomplish with a GED. I’m going to cover that subject.

I say that it’s tedious because there is a lot of informationgathering, so if you’re easily bored, you’ll find yourself stuck. If you’re the Too Long; Didn’t Read type, there’s going to be an abridged version at the bottom or elsewhere in the near future.

You’re welcome.

The first thing to dropping out is knowing the laws for dropping out in your state/province/other form of residence in countries not in the United States. I wish I could say that all laws were the same, but they aren’t. Sorry. Anyway, you should have no problems finding the information on dropping out since you’re using the internet. Such a handy tool, yes?

NEXT. Do not approach your parents about the dropping out process, because you’ll also need to try to find information about centers in your area where you can enroll to take the GED. I think they’re typically called Adult Education Centers, and they might be a branch off your area’s community colleges if there are any around.

Finally, you need to figure out some way to articulate to your parents just why you want to drop out. I’m fairly certain the “I’m just tired of school” argument isn’t going to work. Reasonably so, because there are too many parents that remain fairly uneducated about what school does and believe that is the only way to success. Prove them wrong, as have one million people in the US via alternatives to school. You’ll also need to find information about the GED and what can be done with it.

I’m not going to spoil you and tell you in this article. There are two reasons: 1) It wouldn’t be smart to take information from one source and 2) If I gave you all the information in a single article, your parents wouldn’t take the information seriously. Close-minded indeed. Above all, the easiest way to prove that school isn’t doing you any good would be to prove that you can research the alternatives and use as many sources as you can to verify this. I alone am not enough to help you change your life.

This is the tricky part as I never directly had to speak to them to let me drop out. The special case I mentioned earlier was plain enough to them that being in school was hazardous to my health physically and mentally, and I snapped one day, so they had me taken out. My parents saw it.

You’ll probably have to show them just how miserable or disappointing school is. This is the point I can’t direct you, because you’ll have to think for yourself. However, I can point you in the direction of some references that may help you articulate these thoughts. They’re books though, but one of them can be read for free on the author’s site. Interesting read, to say the least.

Without further ado:

Dumbing us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto (can be read for free here but I encourage you to purchase it if you can.)
The Truancy by Isamu Fukui

Written by: Jackass McAwesome
15 February 2009