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The 16 your old in your example could have dropped out if he wanted to. Why didn't he?

• tristor 7y ago
  Because dropping out of primary education is HEAVILY penalized in our society in multiple facets, sometimes in non-obvious ways. Dropping out of college does not create a major barrier to success for motivated people, dropping out of high school statistically nearly guarantees a bad life outcome. Even people who drop out and then attain a GED (arguably harder than just graduating) have lower statistical success indicators. As a simple anecdotal example, I have an acquaintance who dropped out of high school because he was bored. He's actually quite above average in intelligence and educated despite not being formally educated. Nonetheless, he had a minor run-in with the law (bar fight, he didn't start it), and due to having his official record with the state showing he was a drop-out he was treated more harshly by the justice system, including having a higher bail set and receiving harsher sentencing. Our society basically just operates under the assumption that if you drop out of high school you are complete fuck-up, so that's the context of how you're judged.
• rland 7y ago
  He did, if I remember right, but it was a mighty struggle. The school fought it at every turn, because it was bad for their metrics.