Hmmmmm. Now that might be one whale of an eye-opening education. Make every kid serve a year or two as a firefighter, paramedic, (insert your favorite public service job), etc before they can graduate. That might be one "wake up and smell the coffee" genius idea. "Sorry, you can't put out that fire, stabilize that broken limb, etc etc, you don't get your diploma."

On the other hand, that just passes the problem on to firefighters, paramedics, etc etc, and they already have plenty to do.

Still, not a bad idea. When I was in high school, I spent a couple weeks before my senior year at a state-sponsored camp for "promising" kids. We lived in military barracks at Camp _____ with responsibility to keep our barracks and personal possessions in tip-top inspectable condition. Everyone participated in a faux "government" including law-enforcement, etc etc. I couldn't bear the idea of sitting through boring political activities, so I signed up for the Highway Patrol program. It was a genius idea, because it was a terrific experience. I spent the entire time with HP guys rescuing, shooting, training, patrolling and so on. Extremely educational and I had the time of my life.