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February 6, 2010

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sat Feb 06, 2010, 08:37 AM CST

Who says teens can only learn between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.?

What’s wrong with developing class settings that address the needs of youths whose lives are anything but traditional?

And where is it written that once a dropout, always a dropout?

The Joplin School District’s answers to these questions come in the form of the Flex Program, an alternative program for at-risk students who are more than a semester behind in credit hours, and who are often on their own and are working to support themselves.

Earlier this week, the Globe featured details about the program and its participants on the front page. We heard about Kenneth Thompson, who missed part of his junior year because he was taking care of his mother, who had health issues. His absences resulted in failing grades.

Thompson began taking night classes and now is back in regular classes.

There were 65 students in the program last fall, and now 40 are enrolled in the spring. A few, like Thompson, managed to transition out of the course. Others weren’t so lucky and dropped out completely.

Catching up means the students earn credits through a combination of participation in two-and-a-half hours of in-class study, work-study credit and community service. They must also maintain a 95 percent attendance record.

The reward: a high-school diploma. But only for those who do the work and who are committed to catching up. In our view, the Flex Program makes sense and addresses the changing times of our society.

Parts of the program are new and were made possible by legislation passed last summer. But work study has been around for years, and has allowed countless number of students to work and go to school at the same time.

We applaud the Joplin School District for recognizing that different students have different needs. Failure on the part of the education system to redirect the learning system will cost more than just graduates.

Ultimately we all pay the price for those failures.

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In our view: Taking different approach

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

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