<p>@LDdebate I’m Bulgarian and it at least used to be that way in Bulgaria when my parents were in school, and I’m aware of how smart you Romanians are! I’ve talked to a Romanian student and I heard from a friend at Princeton that they are basically academic monsters. </p>
<p>It should be the same way here. Part of the reason many don’t work hard is because they know that they’ll graduate from high school either way, so what’s the point. Those who really don’t want to do anything should fail out and the prospect of failing and being kicked out of school should motivate those who are on the fence, which I believe are the majority of underachievers. High schools should have policies similar to colleges when it comes to failure in which they kick out students with GPAs below 2.0 who don’t improve within a semester and send them to alternative schools. In my high school, you can graduate as long as you pass the state exams (which are easy, believe me) and you pass 4 years of English, 3 years of science (2 years of lab science I think), Geometry, Algebra I, and Algebra II. That’s it! Your overall GPA can be on the floor pretty much and you still can graduate even if you only pass a set of easy requirements that don’t necessarily prepare anyone for college.</p>