I heard an interesting tidbit. Someone born in America today is less likely to graduate from high school than their parents.

Wow! What a change!

Two and three generations ago, it was completely different. Populated by European immigrants, the United States was filled with parents who made it a priority to see to it that their kids received an education.

Where did the disconnect come?

If you do the research, there are compelling statistics describing our decline relative to other countries. Here’s a quote from an article by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times:

Andreas Schleicher, who manages the Program for International Student Assessment, told the Department of Education: “Three years ago, I came here with a special report benchmarking the U.S. against some of the best performing and rapidly improving education systems. Most of them have pulled further ahead, whether it is Brazil that advanced from the bottom, Germany and Poland that moved from adequate to good, or Shanghai and Singapore that moved from good to great. The math results of top-performer Shanghai are now two-and-a-half school years ahead even of those in Massachusetts — itself a leader within the U.S.”

While our nation’s commitment to education seems to be less, countries around the world are pressing for more rigorous standards, longer school days and more comprehensive educational offerings.

Most of those other nations are striving for better educations because the United States has demonstrated that education is a path to prosperity. While they are copying us, we are slipping.

Here’s my point: If you influence any children, please consider what you are teaching them about taking school seriously.

Establish goals in your household. Help them to understand the value of an education.

Show an interest in what they do at school. Make sure they do their homework.

If they aren’t progressing, take an interest in getting them help.

Read with them. Make sure they have a library card. Buy them books instead of video games.

We have a number of us at PalletOne who stopped short of a high school degree. I’ve heard many times that those who didn’t finish would make a different decision if they had another chance.

The good news is we let your record speak for itself. You can grow and attain as much as you are capable of. But, you have to be a learner to achieve.

Those folks who can read, do math and conceive of science experiments do better than those who can’t. School is where those skills and abilities are developed.

Be a champion for education to the children you impact. It makes a difference.