One key difference is that “continuing school” usually has a specific mental image attached, whereas “drop out of school” is much vaguer, making them difficult to compare between.
Ah, I see. I guess I kind of buy this, but I don’t think it’s nearly as cut-and-dry as you argue, or something. Not sure how much this generalizes, but to me “staying in school” has been an option that conceals approximately as many major suboptions as “leaving school.” I’d argue that for many people, this is approximately true—that is, people have an idea of where they’d want to work or what they’d want to do given leaving school, but broadly “staying in school” could mean anything from staying on ~exactly the status quo to transferring somewhere in a different country, taking a gap year, etc.
One key difference is that “continuing school” usually has a specific mental image attached, whereas “drop out of school” is much vaguer, making them difficult to compare between.
Ah, I see. I guess I kind of buy this, but I don’t think it’s nearly as cut-and-dry as you argue, or something. Not sure how much this generalizes, but to me “staying in school” has been an option that conceals approximately as many major suboptions as “leaving school.” I’d argue that for many people, this is approximately true—that is, people have an idea of where they’d want to work or what they’d want to do given leaving school, but broadly “staying in school” could mean anything from staying on ~exactly the status quo to transferring somewhere in a different country, taking a gap year, etc.