Eliminate the 4th year of high school?

[Viper GTS]

What people need to realize is that there are better options than HS.

Rather than dumping money into an obviously failing institution people should seek out alternatives.

Viper GTS

 

[Bryophyte]

I DID eliminate my fourth year of high school. They just didn't have enough classes to keep me busy. I challenged a junior-level English class, and had been taking night classes at a local community college from 9th grade on, so I just skipped junior year and went directly to senior year. In retrospect, the only thing I would have done differently is to add some shop classes. Damn, when you want to take them as an adult, they're just not as easily accessible. Had to learn welding at the UCD art center, and woodworking and auto repair on my own.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Mimendo is right - it's damn near impossible to fail a grade. If you have failed a grade you should just off yourself. Seriously, they will push ANYONE through. There is even a graduated (har har) diploma available in some areas now for people who are not technically literate. So, instead of failing them, they can get a "kind off" high school diploma because they can't fvcking read!

We now have Bush's "no child left behind" policy, making it virtually impossible for a school to legally fail a child.

 

[isasir]

My junior high school had a program that let us skip eighth grade, by taking course-work equivalent to 9th grade work. It wasn't difficult at all. The end result was that I started HS as a 10th grader, so I still got to feel like I enjoyed all the "benefits" of being a senior, w/o some of the issues of being a freshman.

 

[rh71]

hell no. HS senior year is as much an experience as any of the 4 undergraduate college years.

Besides, you don't want 16 & 17 year olds starting college now, do you ? Those cocky bastids.

 

[yoda291]

My high school was ridiculously easy all 4 years. So eliminating the last year does nothing. I took all the highest level classes they had and they were ridiculously simple. I taught the Intro and AP CompSci class whilst the teacher was struggling picking up C. To be honest...the problem IMO is that high school panders too much to the lowest common denominator. College was so much nicer because if you didn't have the credentials to be there, you weren't there. End of story, here's your rejection letter good luck at McDs.

 

[Kyteland]

Part of the problem with public school is that you don't need to qualify to attend. If they had some better schools that had enrollment requirements then those who are able to step up to the challenge would have a place to excell. It kind of suck for those who are excluded, but how fair is it to hold back gifted students just so that the average student doesn't have their feelings hurt?

 

[dabuddha]

My senior year was kinda challenging

AP Calculus 2
Differential Equations
AP Physics
AP English
AP Computer Science
Art (stupid class )
AP Econ

There were some others which I can't remember

 

[kt]

You guys complain about what's not being offered at your highschool, but what about community colleges? Not sure about your school, but at my old high school we are allowed to take courses at the local community colleges and get credits for them. And since the courses were taken at a community colleges, they count towards your college credits as well. Some guy at my school was well into his college junior year when he graduated from high school.

 

[Balt]

If you eliminate the senior years, HS students will just start slacking off during their junior year.

 

[HokieESM]

High school needs to be "graded" anyway. FAR too many people in this country go to college now.... people that have no business attending go for a "business" degree because the average-run-of-the-mill secretary has one now. There needs to be college-track high school curricula, as well as "I'm going to go work" curricula. There's no point in someone who is going to be a welder taking European History--but it might benefit him to take Personal Finance or Microeconomics.

The real reason this hasn't happened (creating "college-track" schools and non-college track schools) in the vast majority of situations is that 1) school districts like to use intelligent (generally well-behaving), good students as behavior modification for rowdy students, 2) it would be difficult to staff the "lesser" schools, and 3) we stick to the "you can be anything you want to be, as long as you try" anthem FAR too much. I like to quote despair.com's Incompetence when addressed about this type of thought.

In all seriousness, we need to meet the needs of our students. Most high school graduates are ill-equipped for their next few years--whether they go to a university (because, as in the US News and World Report states, they slacked off their senior year) or go out in the real world (where the British Lit and Algebra II they took their senior year is rather pointless for their new job as a brick mason). There are always exceptions to the rule (hell, I was dual-enrolled in a local university starting in ninth grade)..... but for the bulk of the population, I don't think we're meeting their needs--mostly because we refuse to accept that not everyone is "equal" (note: we're ALL equal in the eyes of the law--as the Constitution says--but, THANKFULLY, we're not all "equal" otherwise).

 

[Kyteland]

"All men are created equal, but all men are not equal"

That statement sums it all up fairly well for me. There needs to be a place for those that "are more equal than others"