As a high school and college graduate I've got to chip in say this is gunk. The author was motivated and ready to go to college. There are a lot of motivated high school students as well. They've navigated the curriculum successfully and got out unscathed.
I've talked to college admissions officials on this. Like so many before me, I was smart and ready to jump off the carousel. Fortunately, someone steeped in the game stopped me before I made a pretty bad decision. I could have dropped out, got my GED and started to apply to universities. And I would have been summarily rejected from the good ones.
Instead I stayed, finished up all my highschool requirements by sophomore year (and most were done by freshman year). Leaving me 2 years to take college prep, AP, and dual enrollment courses. All of this was done on the school board's dime.
The blogger speaks about the author like everyone has the opportunity to travel to Buenos Aires, enroll at an American University, and do extensive travel. Unless something changed, AU is seriously expensive and is usually full of the countries' elite. Having access to money buys you tons of things. One of them being a good education anywhere.
Highschool may have its failings but atleast everyone is given the opportunity to go. At this point, you're old enough to make choices and young enough not to feel the consequences. I always hear of how bored people were when in highschool. I rarely hear of anyone saying I took it up a notch and took the harder classes.
I was awed when I set foot on campus. I met people that were much smarter and much more accomplished than me. At home I was a a local hero for getting into a good uni. Now I was in a class of local heroes. Some did major scientific work (Intel, Westinghouse, ISF, etc.) before arriving. And others started their first dotcom while in highschool.
While I understand the idea of unschooling, I'm not impressed with the attacks on the public high school. I'm equally unimpressed with attacks on homeschooling. Both require motivation, and homeschooling requires a bit of sacrifice. I have friends that were homeschooled. None were socially awkward, naive, nor ignorant. They understood that their parents made huge sacrifices (loss of income and career) to provide that education.
The fact is, colleges, and now the military, are looking for smart, motivated people. Just dropping out and getting a GED doesn't prove any of this and might give the impression of the opposite.
Thanks for writing an alternate and reasonable perspective. I generally hold very poor opinions about schooling and sometimes forget that it can and does work for certain types of people.
As someone who dropped out of high school to go to college, and then subsequently dropped out of said college, I am struck by the early similarities. I am you but perhaps less disciplined - a lot of 'hyperbrain' characteristics.
I'd also finished up my high school requirements by sophomore year (including 4 APs), although trying to set up dual enrollment was like pulling teeth in my school district.
However, like mrshoe, I thought school damaged me educationally. To be straight I'd say school was what killed my motivation - something along the lines of that one Einstein quote - and allowed me to form maladaptive study habits which I have never successfully eradicated.
Even now I am still unsure of what kind of advice to give a smart but demotivated youngster. Usually default to:
If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake. -Frank Wilczek
I've talked to college admissions officials on this. Like so many before me, I was smart and ready to jump off the carousel. Fortunately, someone steeped in the game stopped me before I made a pretty bad decision. I could have dropped out, got my GED and started to apply to universities. And I would have been summarily rejected from the good ones.
Instead I stayed, finished up all my highschool requirements by sophomore year (and most were done by freshman year). Leaving me 2 years to take college prep, AP, and dual enrollment courses. All of this was done on the school board's dime.
The blogger speaks about the author like everyone has the opportunity to travel to Buenos Aires, enroll at an American University, and do extensive travel. Unless something changed, AU is seriously expensive and is usually full of the countries' elite. Having access to money buys you tons of things. One of them being a good education anywhere.
Highschool may have its failings but atleast everyone is given the opportunity to go. At this point, you're old enough to make choices and young enough not to feel the consequences. I always hear of how bored people were when in highschool. I rarely hear of anyone saying I took it up a notch and took the harder classes.
I was awed when I set foot on campus. I met people that were much smarter and much more accomplished than me. At home I was a a local hero for getting into a good uni. Now I was in a class of local heroes. Some did major scientific work (Intel, Westinghouse, ISF, etc.) before arriving. And others started their first dotcom while in highschool.
While I understand the idea of unschooling, I'm not impressed with the attacks on the public high school. I'm equally unimpressed with attacks on homeschooling. Both require motivation, and homeschooling requires a bit of sacrifice. I have friends that were homeschooled. None were socially awkward, naive, nor ignorant. They understood that their parents made huge sacrifices (loss of income and career) to provide that education.
The fact is, colleges, and now the military, are looking for smart, motivated people. Just dropping out and getting a GED doesn't prove any of this and might give the impression of the opposite.