High School And College Essay

High School and College; Who is the Winner? A girl walks down the school hallways, and is shoved into a locker by a group of her superiors. She feels like a complete outcast. She tries to fight back and stand up for herself, but is only rewarded with more criticism and hurt. This situation has become all too popular in the high school system in today’s time. While some say that high school is the best days one one’s life, others say that college is substantially improved. What makes high school so difficult for some students? Why is college such a breath of fresh air? College and high school are both critical forms of education, but when comparing workload, social life, and freedom, college is a more favorable student experience. As one’s …show more content…
They strive for it and when it is not rewarded, life becomes more constricted and difficult. Americans are brought up and raised with the main ideal of freedom; so why are high school students not awarded this basic human right? In “Give High School Students” Blake Boles, Director of Unschool Adventures and author of The Art of Self-Directed Learning, narrates “You 're 16 and sitting bored in chemistry class. The teacher 's lecturing about acids and bases, and you 're thinking to yourself, "This is straight out of the textbook. I could read this on my own. So you get up and walk out, without saying a word. In high school, we all know what happens next: raised voices, stern warnings, a trip to the principal 's office, and possible detention” (1). Boles is trying to make it abundantly clear that high schoolers have no rights or freedom as to what they decide to retain. Students should be allowed to determine what they feel is necessary to learn. They should be allowed to chose the topics that interest them. Boles also presents furthermore, “I wanted to skip the stuff that I could learn from the book (like acids and bases) and wallow in the stuff that actually required a teacher (like quantum mechanics). I wanted to do my homework during class. And sometimes I wanted to simply walk out of the most boring lectures. If Khan Academy had existed in the late nineties, I would have been all over it” (1). Many current students …show more content…
Most of the time while attending college, students have absolute freedom over where they live, where they go, and what they do. Blake Boles of The Huffington Post acknowledges, “In college I discovered a learning atmosphere that respected, trusted, and encouraged me to make responsible choices. Transitioning from high school to college felt like liberation. And it left me wondering: Why don 't we do this sooner? What if we treated all high school students like college students?” (1). Everyone should have the opportunity to feel this liberation. College helps prepare people for aspects of life other than the career they are studying to be in. It helps prepare them for the independence they have never experienced before. Jennifer Klein and Alicia LaPolla declare that the huge factor standing between independence of college vs. high school are parents (1). When students are living on their own, or with roommates, in a college setting, they are free to make their own decisions. Some students love this privilege and do an excellent job of keeping everything on course, while others do not take it well and end up going back home. But, for everyone, it is a critical learning experience. It teaches young adults responsibility and independence for life beyond