Should we get rid of high school?

[notsosavagemessiah]

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[StarStruckStrumpets]

(British) High-School is only difficult because of the teachers. Sure, there's bullying, social circles that judge each other and so on, but the teachers are the one thing that will never change. You'll have the nice ones, that brighten your day. You'll have the average ones that just go along with things, then you'll have the ones with the sticks up their arse. They're usually higher up in the heirarchy of staff.

Take our Deputy Headmistress for example. She thinks she owns the school. Me and my friends have been standing where we stand in school at break times for 2 and a half years. Now, all of a sudden, she has started telling us we "aren't allowed to be there". Thing is, no other teacher tells us to move. Not even the Head Mistress. She told a few of our friends off for making a snowman, but they'd been given permisson to do it by the Head (We weren't allowed to throw snowballs because they'd turned to ice or...something). My friends told the Deputy Headmistress they'd been given permission, she said "Oh...carry on then" and walked off.

I fucking hate her. She makes it her mission to make life a misery.

Long story short, you need High-School so you can learn to tolerate this kind of crap in later life, because if you don't have it, you're screwed.

 

[tavelkyosoba]

"I had to unlearn everything I learned in highschool to get through college, luckily highschool doesn't teach much in the first place."

You know, I truely believe what you just said (having experienced it) and yet when I say something like that people write me off as an egotistical jerk without even an explanation.

They're probably too busy reveling in the memories of their high school glory days to realize they didn't learn anything valuable.

Although I'll say it's "mostly true" because I did develop strong writing skills in high school that propelled me through college...compliments of one cardigan wearing teacher. I think college is a little too late to pick up something like "literacy" in the same way adulthood is too late to pick up new languages...you'll just always have an accent.

 

[Zaik]

tbh the stuff that is actually relevant to college could be streamlined into two or three semesters easily. The rest is a bunch of mind numbing time-wastery on the same level as most of the stuff you end up doing in actual college, without making any sense because high schools aren't getting paid thousands and thousands of $ per semester in financial aid per student. At least not usually, anyway.

 

[Kire10]

We need Highschool.
It gives people a time and a place to (hopefully) frow out of the immaturity of primary school and get ready for a life working as a fun tional part of society.
No matter where you go there will ALWAYS be people who pick on those they consider to be weaker and others in a position of authority who have no clue what they're doing, you still have to listen to them though. Highschool teaches us this, it brings us down from our happy small child look on the world to a more realistic one, with out it most people would never leave home, they'd be far to crushed by deppression.

 

[tavelkyosoba]

(British) High-School is only difficult because of the teachers. Sure, there's bullying, social circles that judge each other and so on, but the teachers are the one thing that will never change. You'll have the nice ones, that brighten your day. You'll have the average ones that just go along with things, then you'll have the ones with the sticks up their arse. They're usually higher up in the heirarchy of staff.

Take our Deputy Headmistress for example. She thinks she owns the school. Me and my friends have been standing where we stand in school at break times for 2 and a half years. Now, all of a sudden, she has started telling us we "aren't allowed to be there". Thing is, no other teacher tells us to move. Not even the Head Mistress. She told a few of our friends off for making a snowman, but they'd been given permisson to do it by the Head (We weren't allowed to throw snowballs because they'd turned to ice or...something). My friends told the Deputy Headmistress they'd been given permission, she said "Oh...carry on then" and walked off.

I fucking hate her. She makes it her mission to make life a misery.

Long story short, you need High-School so you can learn to tolerate this kind of crap in later life, because if you don't have it, you're screwed.

I totally feel you. I got yelled at by a lunch monitor for motorboating my girlfriend (wife now) in the caf.

Best...memory...ever...*sigh*

 

[Adventurer2626]

Eh, a little suffering's good for the soul. Suck's you have to brave the gauntlet while you're trying to transition to an adolescent and eventually (read hopefully) to a young adult but aren't you a bit tougher for it than if you hadn't been picked on? 'Cause the "real" world can be much less forgiving than high school. The economy in the U.S. of A. is atrocious right now and I hear it ain't too good in a few other countries as well so I don't see how you can have a ghost of a chance at a job without it. Academia is the perfect excuse to avoid dealing with the job market. Do good in school and you can get some or even all of a college education payed for so there's another 2-8 years for ya. Then you get in on the top level of employment and hopefully get a nice paycheck. If you don't slack off *looks sheepish* it's really a good deal.

 

[Wintermoot]

I dont think we should get rid of high school you dont realy know everything and you need highschool so you could get a better job than fry chef at the local mc.donalds

 

[Frotality]

well ive learned more from the damn internet then high school, but we dont need to get rid of it...

what we need to get rid of is teenagers; theyre the real problem.

but seriously; as screwed up and useless as the american education system is, the last thing to do is outright delete it. thats the mass effect 2 way of problem solving, and i rebuke that method with every fiber of my being.

for now, it suffices for conditioning the stupid for their miserable lives and giving the smart the motivation to avoid that life. what is all that stupid teenage bullshit if not a near-perfect replica of modern human society?

 

[knuckles2812]

A cuple of days ago in my compositon class we read an article about how high schools and how their time has past because of all the clicks, bulling, teachers, etc.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-163471123.html

This is similar to the article i read.

What do you think should we get rid of high schools?

Okay, I haven't read the other posts just yet so I'm sorry if these comments have already been made, but the key reason why we should keep high school around is because you don't know how to spell couple, bullying, and composition. You're in a composition class, I'm pretty sure you'll get knocked some points for that. I think we should actually pump more money into the school system. My little sister is in 8th grade algebra and she doesn't have a TEXTBOOK!!! That's just a touch on the cheap side considering they just resurfaced the high school track, put in the 4th new playground at the elementary school since I was there as a kid (I'm gonna say that's around 15 years or so), and they can't give kids an algebra textbook? I could go on for hours, but I'll just leave it at that for now.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

If you think high school is bad now, thank God you didn't attend before the 2000's. When I was in school you had to actually do the work and know the classes to get a passing grade. It wasn't like today's "everyone gets a trophy" era where if you have a high percentage that are bad at a certain subject you do connect the dots worksheets for tests.

It's not all the kids fault, we can also blame the teachers unions who keep horrid teachers employed and care more for tenure than if the kids learn anything.

As others have said about cliques, they are everywhere in life. Go to a local church and watch the silver haired ladies group together and talk bad about the blonds and vice versa. As for bullying, that seems to be the new racism that everyone complains about. Here's a tip, nut up and take a stand. If you allow yourself to be bullied, then you will continue to be bullied. Hell, in my teen years if I saw you were one of those who cried about being picked on I'd slap you upside the head every time I saw you.

Basically I'll boil it down to this; grow up, quit bitching and whining, do your work and take a stand and a lot of your problems will go away (that wasn't meant at the OP, more for people who think what the OP stated is true).

 

[Seneschal]

Eh, a little suffering's good for the soul. Suck's you have to brave the gauntlet while you're trying to transition to an adolescent and eventually (read hopefully) to a young adult but aren't you a bit tougher for it than if you hadn't been picked on? 'Cause the "real" world can be much less forgiving than high school. The economy in the U.S. of A. is atrocious right now and I hear it ain't too good in a few other countries as well so I don't see how you can have a ghost of a chance at a job without it. Academia is the perfect excuse to avoid dealing with the job market. Do good in school and you can get some or even all of a college education payed for so there's another 2-8 years for ya. Then you get in on the top level of employment and hopefully get a nice paycheck. If you don't slack off *looks sheepish* it's really a good deal.

I'm a little disturbed that people think bullying is an ESSENTIAL part of high-school. No, dammit, it's not. Peer pressure and social conflicts, definitely, in the highest amount possible, but not methodical psychological torture.

There are other models of high-schools than just "american high-school for everyone". Where I live, there are many different kinds of 3-year craftsmanship schools that guarantee work afterwards (though not necessarily academic education) and then there are gymnasiums (4-year "typical high-schools").

I was a student at a gymnasium, and no, it's not any kind of elitist institution, it's a normal school that needs a higher middle-school grade average to get into, and most of the kids there are just normal kids, without all the rotten apples. I witnessed almost no bullying at all there. Considering it was still a school with 2000 hormonal adolescents, people were very curteous and friendly, or at least respectful. Sure, there were bad teachers, but when you see your entire class organize a civilized protest to oppose a particularly nasty teacher, instead of sulking and whining, you get the feeling that the school is doing something right. It wasn't all that hard, but it certainly was more diverse than what I hear American highschools are - we had 18 subjects, 6 hour/day, five language courses, four science classes, ethics, philosophy, logic, political studies, psychology, sociology, history of art, etc.

Why isn't that a viable alternative for the American school system? I'm always quite disgusted when I see on TV that the policy there is just "throw everyone from the district into the same pot and hope for the best." No wonder it's grueling, especially if it shouldn't be. All you have then are "students that went to college" and "highschool dropouts", instead of having "gymnasium, then college students" and "craftsmanship students that have work skill even without college".

And I don't think it's very hard, I basically poured the same amount of effort that an American student does, I guess. Plus, you get the same social interaction with your peers without the malicious abuse.

 

[Hashime]

Alarmist news detected!
High school is vital, hormones also spike at the age range of most HS students. Even home schooled the kids would create drama.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

As I was once told by one of my professors "College is not about learning how to do everything required for your future job. Trust me when I say we couldn't ever hope to do that. What that slip of paper we give you at graduation proves to prospective employers is that you have the ability and patience to learn." Frankly I think that needs to change; if you go to school for specific degree then dammit the bulk of your classes should be geared towards that area of study. I believe that high schools are where we can enact that change.

I think high schools are relatively fine. My teachers had me scared shit-less with stories about how hard college is. I'm about to graduate with a B.S. in English, and it turns out college is nothing like my teachers described. College is a cakewalk. I believe the real challenge will come when I try to get into an MFA program for creative writing.

I definitely agree with the idea that a bulk of classes should be geared towards the degree. College core curriculums are bullshit. They take up at least 50% of the classes a student has to complete for a degree, and they of course, most likely, don't have anything to do with the degree. The other problem is that 90% of those core classes or just rehashes of high school courses. It's the same math, the same history, the same science, and same everything else from high school.

Heck, they even add the bullshit physical education an health class requirement. That really pissed me off. When people enter college they are adults. Adults should be able to decide if they are going to exercise or not. The P.E. and health classes are just taking up and wasting valuable space.

Another bullshit waste of time is foreign language classes. I understand it is important for certain fields. But I had to do a B.S. in English: Rhetoric and Writing Emphasis, instead of a B.A. in English: Creative Writing Emphasis, because the Creative Writing degree has a stupid 4 semesters of a foreign language requirement. The stupid thing is that there isn't a B.S. in Creative Writing degree, if there was, I would have taken it, because B.S. degrees don't have the language requirement. At least I know that I will get a creative writing degree if I can get into an MFA program for creative writing. I guess it is the foreign language loophole, an expensive loophole, but it is there.

I also learned something interesting, getting an MFA will allow me to skip having to get an education degree. As soon as I get an MFA, I can teach at a college or university. One of my professors told me that I'll only have to take a couple short classes that give me only the basics of teaching. The fact is a majority of college and university professors have absolutely no background in education. She told me the fun part is to figure out how to teach on my own.

 

[XThecommander]

I'm sorta disgusted by most of the people here, tell me, what is live? Why does a person live? For their own hapiness, and to make others happy. Jobs, and other things are just to run a system, a system that provides protection, and luxury, in truth, all school is not needed, but it is needed to maintain the system.

In conclusion, the school system is just something to help along those who are unable to think properly, hell, I see a good amount of idiots in my classes. Even if you are smart, this is just the worlds way of mass production, you are nothing but a pawn in the game of the world, unless you make it across the board, you will never hope to become a bishop, knight, or any other more powerful piece.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Should we get rid of high school because it forces people into situations they do not enjoy?

Of course not. If high school had no bullies, incompetence and exclusion it wouldn't prepare you for life.

One thing that high schools need to do is get teachers to stop telling students that college his harder than high school. That is a lie that I know has stopped some high school students from going onto college, because they can't imagine classes that are harder than high school classes.

They also need to stop telling students that grades are important for getting into college period.
High school grades mean shit when trying to get into college. I had marginal grades in high school. I live in Indiana. I learned that any high school student, doesn't matter what their grades are, can get into Vincennes Universty. It has been around since 1801. I graduated from there with my A.S. in English and transferred to the University of Southern Indiana, and will graduating with my B.S. in English come December 11.

Teachers need to inform their students about places like VU, so that more people actually go to college. I bet there are many universities out there like VU that don't have entrance requirements.

 

[neoontime]

Noooooooooo!
That's the best answer I could come up with since it obviously doesn't need an explanation.