The Skunk River Review - DMACC

not be able to do addition or subtraction to find out how much money they are spending and how
much is still left in their checking accounts.
Also, people must have the intelligence to read and comprehend their mail; this includes
bills and letters. For instance, one TV commercial depicts a father who cannot read his mail.
Since he cannot read the material, he has his daughter read his mail to him - until the day comes
when the daughter goes off to college. Then she gets someone else who will help him. This father
is very fortunate because there are other types of consequences that could have taken place.
Some of those are that his bills and letters could started to pile up, unread and unpaid, or he could
have gone back to school to learn how to read so that he can reply to his letters and bills to get
them paid on time.
For all the above factors, therefore, it will be beneficial to have all high schools administer
competency tests as a graduation requirement to so that students can recognize and improve their
skills and if they should graduate and move on to be successful in their college education, in their
chosen career, and, lastly, in their personal lives. Also, the realization that having these types of
tests has a positive effect on students that should be enforced with great care. That is why having
to take competency tests before graduating would end up benefiting students in every school
district. If taking these tests is a benefit and it is little effort to administer them, why not do this?
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