Let Teenagers Try Adulthood Summary

Leon Botskein addresses a controversial topic in his essay, “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” where he discussed why high schools as we known it should be abolished. In his essay he introduces his chief issues with American high schools. He says, “the primary reason high school doesn’t work anymore, if it ever did, is that young people mature substantially earlier in the late 20th century that they did when the high school was invented,” (Botskein). In his essay he established his belief in what the chief issues that need to be addressed in order to improve American high schools. The controversy is over the idea that if high schools no longer work, than what is the problems and how do we fix it. In my opinion, in order to improve American high schools, we must address the problem that most people are not prepared for life after high school. High schools need to prepare people for life after it, whether it is going to college or getting a job. Throughout my schooling I have always heard the question, “why do we need to learn …show more content…
The principal, John Benetti, turned his school around rather than following the herd by closing “underperforming” schools. The article, “The Secret To Fixing Bad Schools” by David Kirp states, “Until recently, Union City High bore the scarlet-letter label, ‘school in need to improvement,’” (Kirp). Benetti demonstrated how issues in high schools can be improved as long as they are addressed. He laid out rules that would resonate with the community. He also realized what the chief issues or high school is, so he said, “there should be more courses that prepare students for college, not simply more work but high-quality work,” (Benetti). According to the article, “this approach is paying off big time: Last year, in a study of 22,000 American high schools, U.S. News World Report and the American Institutes of Research ranked Union City High in the top 12 percent,”