The Benefits Of High School Education

For some students, the question of what to do after high school may be a burden to even contemplate as it approaches quicker and quicker. The pressure to continue another four (or more) years of education after high school can be overwhelming considering twelve years of schooling has already been completed; why go right back to school again? When’s break time? Some people are simply just not ready for college and they know it, or at least until after they have had a long break or have had some time to recollect themselves. Technically speaking college isn’t for everyone, nor is it necessarily needed for a career. Luckily today, there are many other options that potential career seeking beings can get a head start on such as community colleges and trade/vocational schools. These alternatives to a four year college are considered to be a good start on a job (and maybe even a career). The best benefits of these alternatives involve the cost of attending, the student environment, and the degrees offered.

In “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” Leon Botstein argues that the “American high school is obsolete and should be abolished.”(Botstein 254) He explains that this obsolescence is because high school does not represent the way real life works, that real life is not based on popularity and athletic abilities. Botstein suggests that our society isolates students in high school because adults “do not like adolescents.” Botstein wants more options for teenagers and suggests that they graduate at 16 and have the ability to choose what they want to do from there; such as joining the workforce, attending specialized schools for professional training, or going to college. Botstein also states that high school teachers are employed because they are popular, whereas college professors are employed because they are experts in their fields. I agree with Botstein’s statement that the American high school system should be changed, but I do not agree with his belief about the “poor quality of recruitment and training for high school teachers.”(Botstein 254)

In order to grow and prosper in society, one must gain knowledge from a variety of subjects and apply the information in real life situations. High school is one source of education where adolescents are able to gain knowledge by attending classes. However, the school system has numerous flaws and fails to cultivate successful students who are driven to continue their education. Based on the texts in Conversation: Focus on the American High School and my own insight, two serious issues present in American high schools include the failure to reform the curriculum by integrating liberal arts and promoting artificial values in individuals which restricts growth.

Some say that high school is the best four years of life but, this is not the case for everyone. Leon Botstein certainly would not agree with that statement. In his article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” Botstein talks about all that needs changed with high schools and schooling in general. However, his argument is not powerful. Botstein’s use of syntax, diction, and structure is ineffective.

Although high school experiences are of value and contribute social skills to the lifestyles of teenagers, Leon Botstein’s critique of the American high school sufficiently addressed the concerns with the high school educational system. Botstein articulates his opinion at the beginning of paragraph three with the clear statement that “the rules of high school turn out not to be the rules of life” which teenagers are expeditiously learning. Students are not being properly prepared for the trials they will encounter in their adult lives after they graduate from high school and into this true barbarous world. This generation of graduates will be innovating society and reaching new heights. Schools should be shaping creative and problem solving individuals that can be easily integrated into society. The president of Bard College and the author of Jefferson’s Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture, Leon Botstein, outlines the issues that are affecting high school education in his 1999 writing of Let Teenagers Try Adulthood.

Schools are not up to the task of readying young people for the challenges of the next century. An apparently watered down curriculum ensures that all students, regardless of whether they have mastered necessary skills, can graduate. “Social promotion” without requirements to master grade-appropriate skills is now commonplace, so even elite colleges must run “remedial” courses for freshmen in basic math and literacy, and business executives complain that high school graduates are ill-prepared for even relatively unskilled jobs (2).

Since the children are the future of the nation, officials decided to change the curriculum to evoke critical thinking and better problem solving skills. While that is true, there is nothing done. There is only more demand and more work piled on students’ backs. Standardized testing becomes the creator of distress amongst America’s young adults (Wilde). Students are expected to solve for mathematics problem with a certain method and interpret a dense reading passage excerpt in one way. The ability to be creative is taken away because schools want to focus on the academic aspect of a student’s life to not get reprimanded from the No Child Left Behind Act. Time that could have been used for recreation is used to take notes from college level textbooks and create essay outlines for AP U.S. History. In today’s society, college is seen as the glowing finish line after graduating high school. However, colleges do not only want to see a transcript full of honor classes and AP courses but also extracurricular activities and awards to distinguish a potential applicant from an entire pool of candidates. To satisfy those expectations, students enroll into four AP classes and join all sorts of volunteer activities (Dwyer). This ultimately lead to the struggle of time management. Adolescents in high school are pressured the most from deciding on a career to pursue to

A little over three years ago when I found myself entering high school, the spectrum of unique personalities that I encountered completely blew me away. From the laid-back individuals taking each day as it comes, to the close-knit cliques with their life stories posted on Facebook, and even the dedicated scholars, most had an idealistic vision of life after high school. Surrounded by future CEOs, astronauts, and racecar drivers, the class of 2017 seemed destined to go great places.

After one graduates from high school, they are thrown in to adult life. Adult life is scary, uncharted territory for most young adults. When we are thrown straight in to life without the proper life skills to conquer it, life can quickly become overwhelmingly stressful. In a 2014 study conducted of recent high school graduates, 83% of students reported some gaps in their education when asked how their high school education prepared them for life and, or, college. (Kirst) If high school students are leaving high school without skills such as basic communication, financial literacy, and social skills, we are breeding a generation of young adults who cannot properly care for themselves.

Salaries- The people who received a high school diploma earn about $8,400 more than a drop out. You would have better education and a better job.

High school is known as a place where teenagers go to learn and expand their knowledge and skills that are needed to help them succeed. Students are hoping that high school will give them more of an insight of the real world they will face in just four short years. The current school curriculum is outstanding academically, but students are lacking life skills that are needed to prepare them for the real world challenges.

For most elementary students, the thought of moving onto middle school is very intimidating. Parents and teachers love tell the students that middle school will not be as easy as elementary school. The teachers at Sts. Peter and Paul told us that the kids from the public school were horrible people and we had to be careful around them. They also told the kids about the horrors of bullies, huge papers, and a new confusing building; however, I was still ready to leave elementary schools because I hated going to a private school. I saw middle school as an opportunity to meet new friends and experience a less restricted school day.

Although a successful college education is associated with higher skills and greater abilities, unexpected, the struggle for success, in reality, is overwhelming. Therefore, a standard practice taught in school and real world practice is entirely different. Today’s society is overwhelmed by the amount of information and research that is added every year, and some school curriculum updates slow; consequently, by the end of the educational process, information learned in school becomes outdated or inapplicable. Additionally, college students are asked to take part in some courses that probably will never apply to the real world. Therefore, college graduation is not a guaranty for a perfect future, because not every

Picture a world where a couple of clicks on an internet website determined your future in life. As Alice Walker once said, “time moves slowly, but passes quickly” (Walker, 85). Those split seconds pass immediately but last a lifetime. Now imagine if each click represents the disparity between success and failure. The dilemma is that there's a blindfold over your eyes, a hand holding yours directing your movements, and a magnitude of people surrounding you, screaming in turmoil. In the end, is the choice for your success really for you to make? That is the situation which many students face today. Despite the strive for equality for all in terms of gender, race, culture, and nationality, the streaming system was introduced, being used to categorize students based solely off the ability to learn. In the early 1900s, streaming of high school students was introduced in Canada. Originally, three distinct strands existed: basic representing vocational, general representing college-bound, and advance representing university-bound. This system was opposed strongly at its creation for a variety of reasons, one of which was nonuniform opportunities. The Canadian government decided that in 1999, the streaming system would be officially abolished. However, instead, a new system with two divergent streams appeared: academic and applied. Since then, this system has been implemented in high schools across Canada, mostly retaining the same problems since its incarnation: students are too

Yet, the education does not stop at middle school, for high school really puts all the basic skills from elementary and middle school to work as the assignments and the exams become more challenging. We do not only learn about reading, writing, history, and math, we learn about the people around us as we associate with different personalities, and as we see what we have grown up to be and what we want to be later in life. Accordingly, the high school years are a time when teachers emphasize the importance of graduating and attending college in order to have a “succesful future.”