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857 Empty School Desks

The desks represent the number of U.S. students who drop out of school every hour, every day. Powerful stuff.

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857 Empty School Desks
Matt Stopera

The art installation was made by not-for-profit organization, College Board, to call upon presidential candidates to make education a more prominent issue in the 2012 campaigns.

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Image by JONATHAN ERNST / Reuters

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Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Graffiti on one of the 857 empty school desks.

Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

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Image by JONATHAN ERNST / Reuters

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Image by JONATHAN ERNST / Reuters

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Image by Alex Wong / Getty Images

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    7 Responses So Far

    • toughlove2 thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG & Fail  about 11 months ago
    • kea718 11 months ago

      I guess I’m one of those desks… And damn proud of it too. Dropping out at 16 was the best thing I could’ve done for myself. I got my GED (seriously, if you can’t pass that easy ass test you need to go back to elementary school) and started community college. I didn’t continue with school after getting my AA but I do have a job I enjoy very much and offers me everything i could want in a job, so I’m happy. School isn’t for everyone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cater to anyone who doesn’t fit a certain mold, needs extra attention, or learns a different way. It’s sad that there aren’t many alternative schools for students that don’t fit the mold.

    • talgatt thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • cybergata   857 Empty School Desks and thinks it’s Win & OMG  about 11 months ago
    • ninak7 thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • lindseyveronicap   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • nickw20 thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Win  about 11 months ago
    • conniepetram 11 months ago

      I left school two years ago, when I was sixteen. I was very depressed and suffering from anxiety as I have done since my father died in 2005. I was very afraid of going into the real world and had decided that once September 2012 came, I was going to kill myself. Instead, I left school and am now working in theatre. I’m very happy, and I don’t want to die anymore. I plan on following my ambitions to become and actor and a writer. I’m still very afraid of life, but now I am able to deal with it better. Leaving school was one of the best decisions I ever made.

    • stefani 11 months ago

      This is heartbreaking :(.

    • stefani   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • easaw thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • angiebernam thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • Rachael P. thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • BlueInkOgre thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG & Win  about 11 months ago
    • Van thinks 857 Empty School Desks is WTF & OMG  about 11 months ago
    • gracer   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • erincolleeng thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • JulietJ   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • Angelica Calica thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • susanac thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • VeniVidiDormivi   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • benjaminc5 thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Fail  about 11 months ago
    • heathere7   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • nomejuzgues thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • 857 Empty School Desks is starting to get hot on Twitter Tweet It  about 11 months ago
    • wedontgiveafrak thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Win  about 11 months ago
    • Museviolet thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • 857 Empty School Desks is starting to get hot on Facebook Share It  about 11 months ago
    • calli441   857 Empty School Desks and thinks it’s OMG  about 11 months ago
    • lah8e thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Win  about 11 months ago
    • leggylemons thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • ak4d7 thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • jchase79   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • Robot On thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Win & OMG  about 11 months ago
    • deaddrift   +  857 Empty School Desks and thinks it’s Old  about 11 months ago
    • billyd7 11 months ago

      The US birth rate is about 11,000 births/day.
      857 dropouts/hr * 24 hr/day = 20,568 dropouts/day. How can the dropout rate be nearly twice the birth rate?
      Powerful stuff.

    • shelbyl3 11 months ago

      phucthao: My parents have been divorced since I was 2 and I made it out of high school just fine, and I’m set to graduate from college next May. Take out the divorce argument and you have a solid statement.

    • phucthao   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • childeharold 11 months ago

      Kids drop out of school at an alarming rate because the emphasis on student education has shifted solely onto the backs of teachers. Kid gets a bad grade, blame the teacher (she doesn’t teach well). Kid is absent too much, blame the teacher (her lessons are not stimulating enough). Kid doesn’t score well on tests, blame the teacher (he doesn’t teach to the test enough). Student drop out rates escalate because our educational and societal priorities have been out of whack for a long time. A child’s most influential school is actually his home. His greatest teachers are his parents. When the family structure breaks down (e.g. increased poverty, teen parents, increased illegitimacy, increased divorce rates), what do you think is going to happen to these kids? Are they just supposed to pretend that their family life and their school life are two separate things? Are they supposed to come to school; having left a neglectful, poverty-stricken, broken home; only to sit in a classroom and pretend all that stuff going on at home is not a distraction? If we (as a country) want to cut down on student drop out rates, we have to begin inspecting kids’ homes. Bad parenting is not a personal issue. Bad parenting becomes everyone’s problem when a neglectfully-bred dropout becomes an emotionally disturbed, poverty-stricken, often violent adult.

    • patrickb18 thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Old  about 11 months ago
    • fefagonzalez thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • Chris Mccart thinks 857 Empty School Desks is WTF & Fail  about 11 months ago
    • kykathryn thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Fail  about 11 months ago
    • yigef thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Win & OMG  about 11 months ago
    • asrulashotomena   857 Empty School Desks  about 11 months ago
    • Oscar T. thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • Rebecca Silver thinks 857 Empty School Desks is Win  about 11 months ago
    • Josh Fjelstad thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
    • Whitney Jefferson thinks 857 Empty School Desks is OMG  about 11 months ago
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