Graduation rates show society making progress

Take a bow, Americans. Overwhelmingly, you are striving to improve. As evidence, take a look at the latest graduation statistics. Based on a study just completed by the U.S. Census Bureau, 85 percent of adults over age 25 have completed high school.

That is an all-time record high.

As long-time residents of this area can tell you, it was not uncommon early in the past century for young people not to complete the eighth grade, let alone high school.

Now, a high school education is standard, and more than half of the high school graduates continue their educations, with 27 percent -- another all-time record high -- of adults over 25 now having a college degree, according to the Census Bureau.

Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas are at the forefront of the educational movement. Despite all the changes in education in this area -- including numerous consolidations -- the high school graduation rate in this area is close to 90 percent, considerably above the national average.

The Heartland of America also has an impressive rate of continued education for young people, with well over half of the area's 2004 high school graduates announcing plans to attend technical schools, community colleges and four-year colleges and universities.

As high school graduation becomes standard and college attracts more and more students, we need to pay tribute to our parents, grandparents and, even, to our great and great-great grandparents. They paved the way. They established and financed our schools. They insisted upon us bettering ourselves by going to school, doing our studies and graduating.

Of course, it's not just the diploma that's important. It's what we do with it ... how we use our knowledge to improve our individual lives and those of our families and communities.

By and large -- despite the doom and gloom of nitpickers and naysayers -- the vast majority of Americans are doing a pretty good job of living their lives and taking care of their families.

Yes we have problems. We always have and we always will because we are fallible human beings. But, despite our imperfections, the overwhelming majority of Americans are striving to improve their lives. Based on record high school and college graduation rates, many are succeeding, including a large number of you who are reading this column.