School isn't meeting students' needs

To The Sentinel:

My name is Gibson and I am 16. I am taking the GED next month, and I realized I don't know algebra.

At the age of 16 I don't know algebra.

I was in high school for a little over two years, and I never learned algebra. I never received an F, partially due to the fact that the school I was at doesn't give Fs.

What kind of school might this be, you ask? What kind of mystical institution produces dropouts with absolutely no math skills?

It's a little school in Surry called "Monadnock Community Connections", filled with 45-50 students who go to school every day, break for recess, yes, recess, and often go play on the playground. In my years there, there were plenty of people outside of the school who wanted to get it shut down, saying that MC2 wasted valuable money out of the taxpayers pockets, and whether or not this is true, I really don't think it is the problem.

In its five years, four students have graduated from MC2, only two of which started as freshmen. I have seen plenty of brilliant young students go in there and just stay in 9th or 10th grade for four or five years.

I don't know why it is sensible to keep a school where it is perfectly acceptable to be old enough to buy lottery tickets, but still be in 10th grade.

An avid school defender's response to this would be "It's not a time based system". As pleasant as that sounds on the ears, it really isn't saying anything. By saying that, does it make it acceptable to be in high school for six years?

Will a college seriously look at a student who was in high school for six years? Right now I am preparing for the GED test battery, which includes learning myriad things I never learned in school, such as advanced mathematics.

Right now, I am basically being taught algebra by a combination of a $10 practice SAT program for the computer, and a chemical engineering student from Texas that I met while playing "Warcraft 3" on the Internet.

When I started my third year of MC2, I knew by the second day that I couldn't stand even another year of it, so I decided with support of my parents to drop out as soon as I turned 16 and to get a GED. I never planned to drop out, I always thought dropping out was something only delinquents did, yet I am by no means a delinquent.

When I was in middle school, granted, I was suspended my fair share, but I always scored in the high percentiles in the standardized tests, and I was generally viewed as a bright student.

I barely graduated the school, and probably wouldn't have if not for the middle school just didn't want to deal with me anymore, so they were more than happy to send me to MC2.

When I visited, MC2 looked great. The classes included sign language, a Lego robotics class, and student groups called "Public Achievement". As of now, the Lego robotics class has not existed for two years, PA never started up this year, and sign language was canceled in favor of a more traditional language, French.

MC2 has changed from what once seemed like a new and interesting, if even revolutionary idea, to a defective institute where people go to sit around and not do any work. If there is anyone left that opposes the school, or realizes that it is hurting the students rather than helping them, please consider some of these things.