“High school is the best 4 years of your life” Bull crap!

[JohnB23]

Nothing against teachers (I had some great ones), but public school is a scary and dangerous cult that grips you early in life and doesn't let you go until you're 18-21/22.

-It's built around artifical standards that don't mean anything later in life (grades, testing, attendance).

-There's no limit on anything. This is very scary. Teachers can give you any amount of work they want. 10 minutes a night? 2 hours a night? Work on weekends? Group meetings in your own free time?

It gradually wears you down...is it suprising that so many people don't value their time afterwards? You get so use to other people intruding on your time, you don't know any other alternative.

-It takes up an enormous amount of your time. And some of your most valuable time in life (living at home, with no expenses, no mortgage, no obligations). It's a gigantic opporunity cost.

I enjoyed steve's article about graduating from college in a few semesters...he told a professor a certain assignment wasn't worth his time. How about telling the principal the next 4 years aren't worth your time?

-Alot of scare tactics on young and impressionable minds.

Self employment is dangerous, it's the exception in life.
Just wait until you get into the real world.
Without public school, you'll be nothing in life.
"Learning on your own" is vague and thought of as lesser. It's as if they have a monopoly on knowledge.

[Erock]

Originally Posted by JohnB23

It gradually wears you down...

Very very true. It wears on you, and I'm happy to be almost done.

Erock

[ticktockclok]

I came to something of a compromise with my parents. I'll take a barebones schedule next year, just enough to get a high school diploma. I'll also do an auto mechanic course for four hours a day during school hours at the local community college; I actually want to do this. This leaves me time to do whatever I want after school- the list I had in my last post. Then, I spend the next two years "unschooling", and decide what to do after that.

[medaille]

I think the main point was missed by some people (or at least the main point to me right now).

Everybody is spot on about the purpose of schooling to society in it's desire to create predictable, easily controllable, worker bees. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned John Taylor Gatto yet, as his work is very inspiring and helps clarify the whole concept. He has a free ebook on his website that is a compilation of his work and is very informative.

On another sidenote: As it's been said, whether or not high school was any good is purely relative. The quality of the life you lead is ultimately based on internal factors rather than external factors. There have always been people who've been given crap and found a way to be happy from it, and anybody can do it if they want to.

The main focus to me is: Why do so many people get hung up with "High school is the best time of your life." To me, it would only make sense that life would get better as time goes on (as a general trend) because you should be getting closer and closer to truth and you should be learning how to better deal with life and how to make yourself happy.

I don't think it's some big plot by the elites to make people complacent. People who say stuff like that genuinely feel it and its true for them. Why is "real life" worse than "high school" for so many people? High school provides many of Maslows needs that adults don't necessarily get automatically. Social Interactions, Self Esteem (via ego), information, etc. are all provided for in school even if it's the most shallow and egoic way possible. If you are part of the herd you get a lot of benefits. Real life requires you to try to maintain those same standards of living while dealing with more stresses (constant debt, etc) and a decrease in time and energy to do it given that 40+ hours a week is not as available due to work.

So if you're an average person, you are most likely in fear more than you are in growth and thus you are dying rather than living.