Most kids and probably some parents won’t agree with me but I
think high school is too short. We need to add a few more years
between eighth and ninth grade so we can keep the traditional names
for the last four years.
I know a lot of kids hate high school – author Stephen King said
people who say they liked high school are crazy and belong in a
horror story. On the other hand, there must be a few people who
genuinely love high school – give me a few years and I’m sure some
names will come to me.
A lot of things are changing at about the same time we enter
high school, but hormones and brain development are most of the
picture.
I won’t get into hormones here – that’s a subject for parents
and health education teachers – in that order.
Teenagers may have adult bodies but science is increasingly
finding that the human brain doesn’t mature until the mid-20s, as
much as a decade after the body has finished growing. That’s one of
the reasons 18-year-olds can vote but aren’t allowed to drink.
Impulse control is a difficult thing for an immature
brain.
Back in the ’70s, the debate was “If we can send our kids to war
they should be able to vote and get a drink in a bar when they come
home.”
That debate hasn’t changed with the new war, but the new
research shows that maybe it isn’t the drinking age that should be
changed. Instead, we should change the age people can join the
military. It’s no accident that many of the nation’s soldiers join
up before their brains reach the think-before-you-act stage of
development. If kids are still in high school until they’re at
least 21 the country would end up with a much more mature military.
Of course, getting them to join would be another matter.
In a perfect world, by the time kids enter the upper grades
they’ve learned the basics of almost everything – high school is
supposed to be a refining process. They should know how to speak
and write in their birth language. They should be able to perform
basic math without counting on their fingers or taking off their
shoes to get to their toes. They should know how earth sciences and
life sciences are interconnected and that history isn’t just for
dummies.
Unfortunately the world isn’t perfect. A lot of high school
teachers find themselves teaching the basic skills the students
should already know. The blame for this shouldn’t be placed on
elementary and early secondary teachers. There is a lot to teach
and most of them are doing their best. We can hope those who aren’t
will soon be looking for another line of work.
Some blame falls on parents who have taken a back seat when it
comes to the education of their little darlings.
Some of the blame rests in the system itself. If the brain
doesn’t fully mature until we’re 24 or 25 years old, why do we send
kids out in the world as if they are ready at 18? How can we think
we’ve crammed into our heads most of what we need to survive by
then?
Talk to most college professors and the refrain you’ll hear is
that most kids aren’t ready for college. That’s why many kids go
from high school to junior college instead of to a full blown
university setting.
That’s also why the nontraditional students, those at least 25
years old, often do so much better in college that those who come
straight out of high school. It’s also why the freshman dropout
rate is so high. Think about it.