Just read an article entitled "WHy High Schools Must Go". I have to say it was a mind blowing 10 minute read for me. When I think about my own high school experience, there was nothing of note that stood out to me. There are the same traditional benchmarks, prom, graduation, and the parties on the weekends, but educationally? Not a whole lot there. The man being interviewed, Leon Botstein, holds the opinion that high schools are hurting rather than helping older adolescents.
His view point is that by keeping these teens in a traditional high school setting, we are holding them back and even hurting their emotional development. They are ready to be on their own and be in charge of their own learning and instead we are holding their hands and giving out detentions for misbehaving. Botstein maintains that we should not have high school as it is now, but instead have teens attending college at an earlier age. I would have loved a system like that when I was 16!
College, especially freshman year was such an incredibly liberating experience, one that I will treasure for the rest of my life. It was a time to connect to people, to explore who I was, and to develop a self image that fit the person I am today. College was a teenage playground and if given the opportunity to experience it earlier in my life would have been a blessing. Instead I was stuck in a stuffy old lab learning things that I would have to relearn in college because I didn't retain them the first time. It all comes down to choice. High school was not a choice and college was. There is a huge amount of power in providing choices.
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I agree that the Bolstein article was mind-blowing! I see all the time how developmental issues get in the way of learning at the high school level. Before reading the article, I had never thought about the fact that few students have positive adult interactions in the course of a day. This causes them to look to their peers for guidance and social cues.
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking about the fact that it wouldn't be that difficult to implement a K-10 school system and provide more meaningful options for students in the 11-12 years of high school for students who are attempting to move on to college based on the system we already have in place. We could vary the length of the day and allow students access to things they would not normally be provided. Some mature students like you would be able to enroll right away while the less mature and ready students could continue to prepare and get appropriate experience.
Maybe part of this problem is that we organize our schools on the basis of chronological age. While that may work for some things (although I can't think of any offhand!) it certainly does not account for the variety in developmental levels that exist...even at the high school level.
ReplyDeleteThe more I read and the more that I think about it the more I think that students need to be given a chance to direct their own high school needs. If we can guide them in their choices now when they go to college they may be able to make more responsible choices on their own later.
ReplyDeleteHow many high school students go off to college not knowing what they want to major in and spend years and money trying to figure it out. What happens if we provided in high school a taste of the experiences available in the real world so they get to experience it first hand. And for those mature higher level high school students allow an internship for part of the school day in an area of study they are interested in studying if they know what they want to do in college. I am not sure if I agree with the K-10 school system however. I don't feel a teenage is ready at 16 to go to college. Maybe if we provided students in high school with more options like they would see in college but maybe more towards their junior and senior year.
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