Topic: Staying in school

[firebird79_00]

okay so heres my dilemma. im currently in grade 11 but realizing how useless school is starting to get, sure grade 8, 9, 10 were fine they taught basic skills but now im just realizing that what good is doing stuff that wont make a difference to my career such as socials, i really dont care who the first prime minister was, what x+z×ydivided by 7 is. i really just dont see the point, i currently have a part yime job which i would turn into full time, i know what i want with my life to either restore cars (body wise), repair cars mechanically or be in a restoration buisness. has anyone here ever dropped out? what do you do for a living? my current situation isnt good i have missed 40 classes not even halfway through term 1. any suggestions?

[Anderson0741]

I think you should stick with school, graduating from high school always looks better on a resume, and for some jobs if they start doing layoffs, they start with the people less qualified. Here in america there is a work release program, you should check that out, and see if BC has it.

[RainMan]

Well you will regret it later on ,I can almost guarantee it . I quit the second half of 11 and although I don't need it for my occupation ,having a better education would have opened up alot more doors for me .
Later on in life you are going to wish you had a job where you don't have to get your hands dirty .Pretty tough without an education . Maybe you have wealth parents though ,then you'll make it regardless .
In Canada you can't even get in the Military without your grade 12 . If I could do it all over again ,I would have choosen that route ,as they have a great pension . Not so where I work ,but thats no ones fault but mine .
If you are intersted in being an electrician ,you can start an apprenticeship with your present education though .I think you only require grade 10 math. But if you want to go into law enforement ,your out . Or alot of jobs nowadays . Hard to believe ,but to work up in that s#^* hole called Fort MacMurry ,you need your grade 12 for any of those crappy no brainer jobs

[Jolley_Man666]

We don't know how long the recession is going to last which means that more people are looking for jobs, so those who graduated will have the upper hand since not many jobs are safe anymore.  In school it's not just the subject that they're trying to teach you; they are teaching you to study and work hard so you can apply those to anything you do in life.  I hope that you make the best decision for yourself regardless if it's drop out or not

[firebird79_00]

pretty much the only reason im still in school is because of auto there, i think im gonna give it awhile, at least until christmas then decide, rainman i would like to do something in the auto industry weather its being a bodyman, doing mechanical work or both. i just know its something im really going to have to think about

[francis79]

here in nova scotia you have to be a certified bodyman and i would think that will spread across the country ,  that means grade 12 plus 4 years at community college  , it doesnt matter how good you are , you need the peice of paper hanging on the wall . as a certified journeyman [ carpenter ] ive seen many skilled guys get passed over or not attain the wage they should have because of a lack of certification . the younger guys that work for me are all in the system working towards their papers .

[78ta]

We ALL felt the same way but you've gone too far to quit now. Yes, it seems like what you're learning is BS but, as mentioned above, it's not so much what you're learning as it is learning how to do research and figure out the solution to problems. Yes, calculators are great but if you don't know the formula to figure the square footage of an area, the calculator isn't going to help.

Say, you've saved up enough money to build your own garage to start your own shop and want to build it yourself to save money. You need to know how to figure not only square footage but cubic area to tell the concrete company how much concrete you need. Yeah, you could tell them the dimensions and let them figure it out but, owning your own business, you need to make sure they're not screwing you by over charging you.  You might be able to slide by in life by ignoring social studies and history etc but you WILL need math through out your life.

And, as a business owner, speaking proper english (or French) and using proper grammer in your writing will go a long way in gaining the confidence of perspective customers and peers a like.

Like a couple others have said, body work and or automotive mechanical work is physically hard work. I know a lot of 40 year old body men who's knees are shot. They hobble around like 65 year olds. Not to mention the breathing problems they have from the chemicals and bondo dust they've inhaled over the years. Google "body work" or find a body working forum and search the posts for injuries. You'll find tons of guys talking about their job related health problems.
Here are a couple other sources.

http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/1/19
http://www.lni.wa.gov/ClaimsIns/Insurance/Reduce/Prevent/RatesWatch/AutoBodyRepair/3412ClaimsByInjuryType.asp

Here's a good source. Scroll down and read "Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement" section. It states that "Courses in electronics, physics, chemistry, English, computers, and mathematics provide a good background for a career as an automotive body repairer." The article goes on to talk about saleries as well.
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos180.htm


Just remember that even if you only just scrape by and graduate with c's and d's, you will still have a High School Diploma. I'm pretty sure the only time people look into your high school grade point average and attendance is when applying to colleges. I think employers just look to see if you have a diploma or not.

You're not really getting a jump on anyone by dropping out starting your adult career early.  In fact, not having a diploma may put you behind those that graduate a year later with a diploma. Chill out and enjoy hanging out in high school with your friends for another year or so.

Good luck with what ever you choose.

[snap_point]

Mate stick it out, you will regret it in the long term. It might not seem so important at the moment but you have come this far just stick it out 1 more year and then you can do what ever you want. I agree they dont teach you squat in year 12 if your going to be a tradie but at the end of the day you have come this far, I did complete my year 12 and Im thankful I did, you never know when your going to change your career I started as a Mechanic and now Im in sales and have come so far....

[y88rick]

as once being in your dilema let me share my story with you
I quit at 16 half way through 10th. went back the following year and quit again. then what would have been my senior year, i realized that my job sucked and then got the great news that i was going to be a dad. I started going to night school and they allowed me to work on my school work in my spare time as well. I ended up finishing school 6 weeks before my class. I also took auto shop class in high school but here in the us you really need more than that we then continue on to wyotech to land a better job. my current job is auto glass. i was restoring cars for a living at the age of 17-23 then got laid off. the body shop industry is extremely slow currently. im glad i got out of it. as i'd probably jobless right now. im in autoglass now as i also did multi training for this and am safe-tech and I-car certified for autoglass. I wish i would have carried into college and got a better carreer for myself as I know im better than where i am at today. I feel well educated as im more self taught. I helped my wife study all through her 6 years of college.
for your future do not do it man.
just finish it up and enjoy your freedom as a teen rather than forcing yourself to grow up and get old. i wish i would have done things alot more different and im not doing to shabby in life. I average 55 grand a year in my income with free vehicle and free phone I was blessed to have what i do as i know if i slip out of my carreer path, i will never come close to this income again without further training meaning education.
my wife has a bachelor's degree and an associates degree looking at a masters, she had a hell of a time finding a job last year. think it over seriously before doing something you regret for the rest of your life.

[edek]

I think thats great that you want to work on cars for the rest of your life.
Drop out, work for someone else doing what you love.

or

Finish school, become educated more about the business on the inside workings and open your own shop.
Still doing what you love but making more money.

And yes i know that you can open up a business without any education but banks are willing to help someone with a bit more education under his belt.

Just a thought to think about.

[pat]

chemistry it the basis of all body work it will help later most body guys get old and end up working in a paint shop selling paint chemistry helps a lot, knowing how things react when mixed also aplys to the painter, how many sparkles can you add to the paint before it is saturated, what is the limiting reagent in the paint mix(do you have enough or toomuuch catylist)

geomtry is used a lot in building engines and other things on a car how long push rods need to be, rocker ratio, compressino ratio, pinion angles on lifted and lowered cars, front end alingment these are all basic geomentry

art class basics from there go a long way when making a custom paint job

also consiter a bookkeeping class and econmics,

these are few examples of things that you learn in school that directly aply to the auto industry.

i thought about droping out when i was in 10th grade but stuck it out decited to try collage and i have learned a lot in the last 3 years and it was way better than highschool and aplyed a lot more to real life you have less than 300 days of class time left. 

[pat]

the diffrance between what you wlii make in the next year and a half if you drop out or stay in school is only about 9000 dollers and on avrage a highschool graduate makes almost a million more in a life time than a drop out

[Gold78Spc]

Some day you will be older, married, and have kids of your own.  We always want and expect better of our kids.  What will your reply to your children be when they say to you "but dad YOU dropped out and you turned out ok"

[firebird79_00]

yea i guess you guys are right, its just so damn frustrating because if i wasnt in school id be working full time getting my car done quicker as well. i have thought about finishing it some other time as well but i think im just going to see how it goes for the next couple of months

[Gunner]

okay so heres my dilemma. im currently in grade 11 but realizing how useless school is starting to get, sure grade 8, 9, 10 were fine they taught basic skills but now im just realizing that what good is doing stuff that wont make a difference to my career such as socials, i really dont care who the first prime minister was, what x+z×ydivided by 7 is. i really just dont see the point, i currently have a part yime job which i would turn into full time, i know what i want with my life to either restore cars (body wise), repair cars mechanically or be in a restoration buisness. has anyone here ever dropped out? what do you do for a living? my current situation isnt good i have missed 40 classes not even halfway through term 1. any suggestions?

If you don't finish High School, you'll doom yourself to shoveling manure out of barns for the rest of your life. Period. You're right, most of the stuff your junior and senior year is useless rubbish. BUT here's the point. What an employer is looking for is to see IF YOU'LL PUT UP WITH THE USELESS RUBBISH. Because an employer WILL look at that and say to himself "Well, this dude can't stick with the government program, what makes me thing he'll stick with mine?". A hard fact of life is that a boss in ANY industry is sooner or later going to stick you with a task that you think is stupid or useless. And they're going to want it done no matter how trivial YOU think it is. If it doesn't get done it comes down on HIS neck, and YOU lose your job. Basicly school is proof that you'll go through the motions and do what you're told, no matter how trivial you find the task.

I graduated high school and have some college. And I'm finding it damn near impossible to find a decent job. You quit school, and you'll GUARANTEE yourself that you WON'T ever get one.

Gunner