Only 66 percent of high school graduate students feel they are ready for the adult world. This means that 34 percent of high school graduates feel they are not prepared to be independent. First, we will look at why teens should not graduate at the age of 16. Then, why teenagers should all shadow a few different professions so that they can see what we teenagers truly want as their career before we graduate. Also, how the rules of high school are the rules of real life and when they are not we will look at how they are very similar.
Last but not least, we will look at how middle school, as an institution is not outdated and should not be abolished. I agree with Botstein on some things but on others I completely disagree with him. Most importantly, I believe children should not graduate at the age of 16. When Botstein said, “Young people should graduate at 16 rather than 18,” he was saying that we should not keep teenagers in school for two extra years when they don’t really need to be in a school that is just general education and not helping them to develop their specific talents.
But, for us to do this we would have to start with the preschoolers. Teach them things that they would previously have learned as a kindergartener and so forth. The curriculum would have to speed way up to be able to teach the students everything that they need to learn before they graduate. In each class, most of the time, there is at least one kid who is slow in learning the material, so you need to have time to explain it to them. As an example, when you speed up the curriculum more kids will fall behind and when you do not understand one thing you will not understand the rest.
In addition, the kids who are 16 would not be ready to graduate yet; because they have not been taught the necessary skills they need to survive in the real world. This argument of Botstein’s is based on the best kids at the best schools. For example, there are a couple of students at Sumner Academy that if someone says, “okay go out in the real world, you are ready,” they would be fine. But the rest would struggle because as I said before, they have not been taught the necessary skills. But, I do agree, that teenagers should shadow a few different professions during high school.
So that when we have to attend college and get a real job we know what profession we want to go into so that we know what majors and minors we need to study. Also, so that if we wanted to go into a certain profession we could see if it was truly right for us. And so we have time to change our minds before we apply for colleges, because certain colleges have better programs for certain areas of study. If someone were to say to me “well, we have time for that once we graduate. ” I would say and what if you change your mind several times.
Then, that could be a year or even longer spent wasting time changing the field you want to go into. And it also wastes money when you have to keep applying to schools (they charge you for that). When Botstein says, “but the rules of high school turn out not to be the rules of real life,” I disagree. He is trying to say the rules are never the same for high school and the “real,” world. But, high school rules can range from dealing with students and or teachers you do not really like. You need to manage your time wisely to get everything done. Too, you do not always get what you want.
Also, you have to work for what it is you want. These are rules that can work universally for high school and the real world. Yes, there are always rules that do not translate into real life because the situation is different. But, the most basic unspoken rules of high school can almost always be translated into the rules of real life. Whether you have to reword them or not the base of these rules are still there. Finally, when Botstein said, “We should entirely abandon the concept of the middle school or junior high school,” he is incorrect. He is saying that because this system is outdated we should just totally get rid of it.
He is not correct because at this stage we are really starting to take steps away from our parents and figure out who we are. This stage is crucial because it is teaching us to be responsible and to be sure our work is done on time and that we pay attention and study. It also prepares us for adult life. It helps teach us good morals by giving us good teachers to look up to. After reading this I can conclude that in a lot of ways I believe he is wrong but in a few ways he is correct or just a little off. The ideas of Botstein’s that I wrote about are the main points he makes and are important because their the ones I feel the strongest about.
I chose the idea about graduating at 16 because I am a teenager and I have firsthand knowledge of what this would do to me as a student. I also chose the one about job shadowing, because it plays an important role in choosing our career and because I’m not sure what I want my career to be so I realize that this is a good idea. I chose to highlight the fact that he thinks we should abolish middle school because just to think about this it is astonishing idea. I’m right because I have first hand knowledge of these things inside my school.
