How I almost dropped out of
school
Billy was a student
with a big attendance problem. He was very personable and always
sought to make up the work he missed but his absences were quite
extensive. He was a student the very first semester of "Strategies
of Success" and made a very strong impression on all who were in the
class. He was someone who would go far in this world because he had
a great attitude, was kind to all around him and made everyone glad
he was around.
It was two years
before I saw Billy again in the spring of his senior year. He was
in the second strategies course by then and the class had chosen to
mention an 8th grade class as its charitable project for
the semester. It was late May when the seniors were close to
graduation. The members of the class were surrounded by over 60
eighth graders sitting on the edge of their seats as they listened
to the high school students share the strategies they had learned.
Billy took a minute while he was there to tell them a story – a
story I had not heard before. He said that prior to taking
"Strategies of Success", he had decided he was going to have to drop
out of school. He’d never make it to graduation with all the
absences he had. But taking the class taught him things he had no
learned before. He learned among other things to set a goal for
himself and he was one month away from seeing that goal come to pass
– when he’d walk across the stage at graduation.
Billy recently
graduated from a technical school and is employed in the career of
his choice.
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