A Motivation Matters reader alerted me to a thoughtful interview that KMOX Radio in St. Louis recently did with Claire Wyneken of the Wyman Center, which is working to help reduce the dropout rate in the St. Louis area through outreach and a focus on helping teenagers develop better long-term relationships with adults.
Ms. Wyneken had just attended a summit in Washington to talk about the problem of high school dropouts. Educators, researchers, and teenagers attended the summit, and she was particularly struck by some of the comments from teenagers, according to the KMOX interview. “‘If people had pushed me a little harder,’” one teenager told her, “‘maybe I would have stayed in school.’”