Regardless of your political stance, I feel that everyone should be watching the state of the union address. There are always those who are instantaneous to shoot down or deface anything that the other party says, but those of us either in or going into the education field should always be active listeners to what is going on. We need to be informed when important topics are up for discussion that could have dramatic effects on our lives.President Obama addressed the issue of students dropping out of school. He raised the issue that all states should take a firm stand and adopt a universal policy that students wouldn’t be able to remove themselves from school, A.K.A. drop out until they were 18. While I’m sure this topic will be followed with scrutiny and rebuttal from politicians as teachers we should be fighting for this.

Having family members who decided to drop out of high school early on in their educational career, I see the ill effects it has on future career choices and salary earnings. Also as anyone who has worked with adolescents, we know that they are not mentally capable of comprehending what sort of repercussions dropping out will have on their future.  Teenagers think that they know it all and have all the answers, which is normal, but they shouldn’t have the option to make such an important decision until they are at least old enough to vote. Regardless of your political stance, as a person who values education we should all be standing together on this issue.