By Sarah Police

Staff Writer

In Coppell High School’s Class of 2012, there are 683 students. But how many of them will actually graduate college?

Yahoo! Tech recently released an article that caught my eye. It was the total percentages of people in America over the age of 25 that have a college degree.

According to the article, out of all 50 states, the highest percentage of college graduates is 39 percent in Massachusetts.

After reading, I sat with a blank stare on my face; it seems to me completely ridiculous and out of place that these rates are so low. Maybe this is just me being naïve at times but I thought that America was moving forward.

Reading these low numbers makes me ponder about the people of America. What does this low rate say about Americans as a whole? Are we as uneducated and ignorant as other countries portray us to be?

Just to make clear, I’m all for college but that doesn’t mean I look down upon the people who don’t have a college degree. When I look at people like Bill Gates I don’t see someone I will never respect because he doesn’t have a college degree. I see a brilliant, ambitious man who proved a college degree isn’t necessary to be successful. However, in most cases, Bill Gates isn’t the average person.

Now, I do understand circumstances in which one might not be able to go to college. Sometimes struggling with money or having to take care of someone at home can prevent people who want to go to college from going. What frustrates me, is the people who have the ability to go, get there, and become lazy and drop out.

The Yahoo! Tech article also compared the college graduation rate in the late 1940s; the rates were even worse falling, in the sixth and seventh percentile.

The hardest part about this is that the highest percentage for any state in America is 39 percent of people over the age of 25 with a college degree.

It makes me think about where all of the people who graduate from high school are going. Are they just not finishing college? If so, this is a scary rate that may be devastating for us in the future.

I’m starting to wonder if the things we are being taught in school are as advanced as they should be. Would it be better for me if that open-notes economic test is a regular no-notes test?

After 12 years of work, will my friends and I be sent out into the world as an uneducated people?

If the problem doesn’t lie with what we are being taught, then maybe it’s how we are taught. All the way back in elementary and middle school, we learn the fundamental skills necessary to be successful.

Personally, I still remember trying to finish my homework two minutes before first period in middle school. Even today, I sometimes think it is pointless to read books I don’t understand and I usually start an essay the night before it’s due. Maybe because we never established a routine some of us struggle with procrastination.

How many times a week do you promise your self you’ll save your project for the next day? Now that I’m thinking about it I usually do most of my own homework in other classes. It is now that I’ve realized that we have no one to blame but ourselves. If we don’t do the work, we won’t succeed. There should be a combination of more advanced curriculum and more motivation from students can change these low rates.

It comes down to our personal drive, our personal motivation. It depends how much we want to succeed, and how hard we are willing to work to get there.