Quicker Ed
I'm not sure completely how I feel about this, other than that I have a lot of misgivings.
A friend of mine shared this article talking about a desired shift in how high school is handled. The upshot is that high school graduation would not be tied to seat hours based on accumulated credit hours, but rather on subject matter as is the case in some other countries. I understand that there are students who could be done with high school in less than four years. This sort of program would be ideal for them. Perhaps.
Because the issue which this change doesn't address would be the readiness of, say, a 10th grader to move on to community college (or university) at the age of 15. Not academically or intellectually, but socially, emotionally - spiritually even. It seems to me that a great deal will need to change in earlier education processes and techniques if we hope to have kids who are not merely smart enough to be done with high school, but smart enough to be ready for whatever it is that they envision themselves doing afterwards.
We'd be doing our kids a grave disservice to push them into "careers, to higher ed and technical colleges and the workplace, sooner rather than later", if we don't simultaneously and intentionally prepare to deal with these environments in other-than-intellectual/academic ways.
A friend of mine shared this article talking about a desired shift in how high school is handled. The upshot is that high school graduation would not be tied to seat hours based on accumulated credit hours, but rather on subject matter as is the case in some other countries. I understand that there are students who could be done with high school in less than four years. This sort of program would be ideal for them. Perhaps.
Because the issue which this change doesn't address would be the readiness of, say, a 10th grader to move on to community college (or university) at the age of 15. Not academically or intellectually, but socially, emotionally - spiritually even. It seems to me that a great deal will need to change in earlier education processes and techniques if we hope to have kids who are not merely smart enough to be done with high school, but smart enough to be ready for whatever it is that they envision themselves doing afterwards.
We'd be doing our kids a grave disservice to push them into "careers, to higher ed and technical colleges and the workplace, sooner rather than later", if we don't simultaneously and intentionally prepare to deal with these environments in other-than-intellectual/academic ways.
Indeed. Reminds me of a movie I just saw called "An Education." In it, a high schooler wants to grow up too fast and actually quits school (so, admittedly, a bit different than this situation), but in the end realizes that she was not ready for any of these adult experiences she was having. A very good movie that you should check out.
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We closed our Netflix account for the time being, but hopefully you'll remind me once we get settled again. Sounds interesting indeed.
I appreciated my friend's assertions that she wished this had been an option for her when we were in high school together. I knew one or two folks who graduated a year early, but I couldn't understand the rush to leave. I mean, I hated high school as much if not more than anyone else I knew. But I certainly wasn't ready for whatever was going to come next. Arguably I wasn't ready for it a year later! I know there are some people who would do just fine in leaving high school early. But I worry that this change would quickly turn into a push - to move kids through school faster and into the workforce faster. That ultimately the economics of it would eclipse whether or not it was actually good for kids.
Of course, that's probably a moot point more and more in a culture where 6-year olds idolize Hannah Montana.
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