Let’s Get One Thing Straight

As humans, we hide behind euphemisms. Nobody dies, they “pass away”. Nobody fails, they’re just “differently successful”. The same is true of dropouts. Nobody wants to say the word.

During my research of dropouts, one thing was most consistent. Not a single research source simply came out and said that the subject was a dropout, left school, or failed to get their diploma. Not once. It’s as if dropping out of school were a venereal disease, having killed one’s parents, smuggling drugs, or dying in a dark alley of a drug overdose. At every turn one encounters such euphemisms as “Limited formal education”, “Left school early to pursue business opportunities”, “Self-taught entrepreneur”, “Chose practical experience over academic pursuits”.

If our 500+ dropouts teach us anything, it’s that leaving school is not a shame or a scandal. In the case of our 500+ dropouts, it’s anything but an escape or dodge. In some cases, our heroes had no choice, in others they left school for a higher duty such as supporting a family or defending their country, and in many cases, simply said, “I’m done. I have all I need, and I’ve better things to do.”

So before we examine what the dropouts teach us, let’s get one thing out of the way: leaving school is not a crime, not a weakness, not a source of shame. Sometimes it’s a choice, sometimes it’s not. Perhaps if one drops out because they’re too indolent to study and goes on social assistance because they’re too lazy to support themselves, one might find fault. But when our dropouts walked away from their academics to become legendary industrialists, actors, inventors, musicians, explorers, artists, and statesmen, we need to get over our squeamishness about the notion of leaving school before the diploma is earned.

Maybe they were smarter than those of us who have the certificate on the wall and little else to show for it.