Journal # 19- School Attendance

Should school attendance be mandatory? I would say no, it should be a students decition and their parents whether or they wish to attend school. As it was in the around the 60's schools did not worry as much as they do now when a child didn't attend to school. Now they call our homes and if it get to a point where you are absent everyday they might even involve the police. Even though this is good as the education in America is declining , grades aren't so great and students tend to slack of after Highschool. Having an education increases your social skills and simulates a stressful environment which prepare someone for real life. Yet having to attend school is tedious I rather be working right now or doing something towards my career in mind. School would be better if we just took the classes we wanted for highschool and get those over with then move on to the university or college. Right now Im only thinking this state whise but if we where to have this all over the nation then we would see a rise in unemployment, debt, arrests, etc. Our country would be "DUMBER" in a sense of us not knowing our history or geometry. This is the land of the free yet I feel as that doesn't become true until im 18, as of now I have to go to a WORK like or jail like place, learn, and get good grades. It becomes an obligation that I never had an opinion on and makes me feel like ditching the whole place, just like many other must feel too.