Student Advocacy Day

I talked with my eldest after we had finished the day out. He was pointing out what he thought was most fascinating (and what he took notes on). The first is how much each county spends on each student to give them their education. It's a good thing he's interested in this as it will definitely affect him as he grows.

The second fact that he took away was something an unexpected speaker gave us. He was quoting facts/figures from the Fulton County Jail. I may have some of the numbers wrong, but they're approximately correct. One - approx. 89% of the inmates are african-american males. Of those, approx. 80% did not graduate high school. Of those approx. 70% read at a 3rd grade level or below. It reinforced in my son's mind the importance of a good education. The question it raised for ALL of the kids there, is WHY do they drop out? What can they do about it? Maybe one of these kids will be the one to figure it all out. Certainly the rest of the adults haven't been able to.

What pulled my son in to both of these, though, is that both had facts/figures/statistics to back them up. It was very interesting to see what he pulled out and what he will retain.