Been thinking about high school and if it really prepared me for the real world. When I think about it, I don't think it really did. Sure I took away a lot, but in the big picture, it wasn't really much. It felt like everything outside of regular classes were about college....like take that class you'll need it for college or take the SATs you'll need it for college. Most of it was for getting into a four year university.

I wish they would have taught really important things, like what if you lost your job (being laid off or terminated)? What resources can you use when looking for employment? What if you're making a certain income? What if you're a full-time student or a part-time student? What if you become injured and have to be on short-term disability? What about your credit score and how to improve it? I'm sure there's a lot more.

I guess what I'm saying is that it felt that high school felt like getting pushed into the next school and learn the important things then.

I don't really think school is much for preparation for the real world, otherwise they'd have classes that teach everybody how to do things most people can't get, like balancing checkbooks and managing finances...it's more a matter of just getting kids out of the house and making sure they're sitting down and being zombies for so many years so the state can get its money for them being in school.

Shale already quoted from Kodachrome by Paul Simon. That pretty much sums up H.S. Experience is the best teacher.

I never went to high school and didn't seem to suffer from it...My mom pulled me out of school after the 8th and "home schooled" me...Meaning I babysat all the neighborhood kids because I was the only kid home to do it. I got my GED when I was 16 and started community college that fall. I passed the GED just fine on the first try without anything over an 8th grade education so I guess it wasn't too hard. I did read a lot though. Maybe that is why.

Supernova wrote:

I don't really think school is much for preparation for the real world, otherwise they'd have classes that teach everybody how to do things most people can't get, like balancing checkbooks and managing finances...it's more a matter of just getting kids out of the house and making sure they're sitting down and being zombies for so many years so the state can get its money for them being in school.

I think this is largely true. Heck I don't even think most college classes really prepare you anymore. Education and "school" are becoming less and less synonymous.

College prepared me for the harsh reality that they only want money. Education as a business. Sickening.

Rockbird wrote:

College prepared me for the harsh reality that they only want money. Education as a business. Sickening.

Exactly, like from the movie Big Man on Campus, Bob is reading about, I guess Plato, and he reads 'but he wondered, if education is its own reward, why do his books cost so much?'

Forgiveness Man wrote:

Education and "school" are becoming less and less synonymous.

And to answer Marc's question, no, I don't believe high school really prepares a person for the real world, not socially or educationally. My high school education was only one year (I pulled out after the first year and got my GED at 17), and even with that one year I could see high school was pure BS and not based on reality. It was all about what brand you were wearing, not who you were. That's not the real world, not my world anyway.

No, it really doesn't prepare you. My sr. year, second semester, I needed to fill an hour. I ended up begging the teacher of a math class that was for poor students to make an exception and let me in. It was all stuff you needed to know like balancing a check book and budgeting. It was so valuable and it was pretty lame that it wasn't available to those who were not poor students because anyone can benefit from that.

Wasn't supposed to prepare you for the real world essentially. Was supposed to give you basic knowledge and prepare you for college and furthering your education. Really, I don't know what kind of school system everybody went to on here.....but I was learning how to balance a checkbook and managing finances in the 7th grade. I learned the basics of cooking in the 8th grade. I learned how to sew in school. I learned how to the read the stock market.......in grade school. At my HS....they had shop classes and various other trade classes for students who knew they wanted to forgo college and learn a trade. How much preparing for the real world are they supposed to do? No slight against you personally Marc, but this attack on education and higher education that everybody seems to be jumping on the bandwagon on is totally ridiculous. Yes, schools want money. Yes, the run like a business because they have overhead like a business. Yes, this poor economy is making exceptions for even the most well-educated of job seekers but this acting like you're not getting anything of value by obtaining a post secondary degree/education is just crazy. You're getting knowledge. Learning something I'm sure your ass didn't know. That isn't enough? It's like people are getting comfortable and actually taking pride in being uneducated. Quite frankly, there is no way that you can tell me that everything you would've learned in college you would've learned without being there. College can spark someone's interest tremendously.....people find their 'calling' and decide what careers they want to pursue by taking advantage of the opportunities available to them while being there. Don't get it twisted, I am not saying that people who don't have a formal education are stupid, I am not saying all people with degrees are smart/intelligent. If college isn't for you, cool.....if you can't afford to go, cool.....but you should never discourage or look down (as I've seen) on someone for pursuing it.

If they find that needle in a haystack that is a college education instead of 4 or more years of taking all your money and sapping up all your time for nothing and you still can't find a job based on what happened there, good for them, but most of us got the regular college experience instead.

Yes, and from my own experience, I already knew what I wanted to do LONG before I ever entered college, but everybody's got to have a degree, nobody hires you even if you can do the work if you don't have one, so I had to go, and I don't think anything I 'learned' there is anything I would've been worse off not knowing. Oh sure, the music classes were good, introduced me to a few songs I didn't already know, everything else either didn't matter then or hasn't proven useful since.

Most of it was head games with the professors, you take the exams, and the right answers are NOT the ones you find in the textbook, just like they were pulling them off the top of their head or something, what's that supposed to teach people?

Supernova wrote:

Yes, and from my own experience, I already knew what I wanted to do LONG before I ever entered college, but everybody's got to have a degree, nobody hires you even if you can do the work if you don't have one, so I had to go, and I don't think anything I 'learned' there is anything I would've been worse off not knowing. Oh sure, the music classes were good, introduced me to a few songs I didn't already know, everything else either didn't matter then or hasn't proven useful since.

You didn't have to do anything. If you knew exactly what you wanted to do, then you should've spent the time you 'claim' you wasted in college on focusing on what you wanted to do. Why did you even bother if you didn't go there to learn anything? Fuck getting a job for a minute. You're supposed to learn something.

Most of it was head games with the professors, you take the exams, and the right answers are NOT the ones you find in the textbook, just like they were pulling them off the top of their head or something, what's that supposed to teach people?

Just like automobiles, there are good ones and bad ones. For you to assume that every college experience is parellel to yours is nonsense. And so no true. Seriously, by your own admission.....you never even left your home state and I wouldn't doubt that you never even left your hometown. I'd strongly suggest you step outside and experience another world.

Lots of interesting responses on here. I never went to college, and as Marc pointed out, it does determine whether you may keep certain jobs because a Bachelor or even Masters degree is part of the requirement. Even if I have the knowledge to perform the job I cannot be hired in it. I have done several paraprofessional jobs where I was doing the exact work as the professional but was not "qualified" to hold the professional position because I lack the credentials.

As for the original question of whether high school prepares you for the real world; mine did. We had practical courses in the early 60s such as shop, mechanical drawing, fine arts and typing that would set you on entry level in many companies. We even had what was called home economics where you would pick up all those practical skills mentioned lacking here. And, we were all from a middle class suburb.

However, I should note here that learning is ongoing and adjusts to the particular job market and world of the time. No high school curriculum could foresee which direction all those specifics would take so you give a good basic background and the person is expected to fine-tune the specifics after graduating, either thru job-specific courses or OJT - on the job training.

I work in an office, but have a very varied work history. One thing I noted was how experience in one seemingly unrelated job can transfer to added asset in another. Of course are the basics in all jobs, punctuality, dependability, and determination to get the job done - correctly.

And as for formal education. I have amassed what could easily be a Bachelors degree over the years from just work experience and additional research in various jobs. As for writing I am often asked to proof and edit work for co-workers with degrees, up to PhD. (In fact I find it embarrassing that so many degreed ppl can't write worth shit)

So, that is the take of a high school graduate on the subject. I think my high school did a good job of sending us out in the world of 1963.

Nystyle709 wrote:

Wasn't supposed to prepare you for the real world essentially. Was supposed to give you basic knowledge and prepare you for college and furthering your education. Really, I don't know what kind of school system everybody went to on here.....but I was learning how to balance a checkbook and managing finances in the 7th grade. I learned the basics of cooking in the 8th grade. I learned how to sew in school. I learned how to the read the stock market.......in grade school. At my HS....they had shop classes and various other trade classes for students who knew they wanted to forgo college and learn a trade. How much preparing for the real world are they supposed to do? No slight against you personally Marc, but this attack on education and higher education that everybody seems to be jumping on the bandwagon on is totally ridiculous. Yes, schools want money. Yes, the run like a business because they have overhead like a business. Yes, this poor economy is making exceptions for even the most well-educated of job seekers but this acting like you're not getting anything of value by obtaining a post secondary degree/education is just crazy. You're getting knowledge. Learning something I'm sure your ass didn't know. That isn't enough? It's like people are getting comfortable and actually taking pride in being uneducated. Quite frankly, there is no way that you can tell me that everything you would've learned in college you would've learned without being there. College can spark someone's interest tremendously.....people find their 'calling' and decide what careers they want to pursue by taking advantage of the opportunities available to them while being there. Don't get it twisted, I am not saying that people who don't have a formal education are stupid, I am not saying all people with degrees are smart/intelligent. If college isn't for you, cool.....if you can't afford to go, cool.....but you should never discourage or look down (as I've seen) on someone for pursuing it.

I totally agree with you. I'll be going back to school when the twins start school, not because I think it will help me get a job, but because education has value beyond $. If I can find a way to make it work, it is worth it to me to get a higher education because I love school and I love learning, and I think that my kids would benefit from seeing me in school as a bonus.

That's a good attitude, TPP, and I wish you good luck on that one, me personally though, it seems anything worthwhile I ever learned, I did NOT learn it in college.

The whole point of school is to prepare you for the next level.

Kindergarten prepares you for elementary school...which prepares you for middle/junior...which prepares you for high school...which prepares you for college...which gives you an accreditation for choosier, elitist employers. And with so many people competing for jobs, employers almost have to look at who's got a degree in order to make it easier on them to choose who to hire.

Everything taught after grade 8 is not essential to surviving in the real world.

No matter how great your high school and college are, and no matter how many classes you take and what you do in high school and college, there is still no substitute for 'real world experience' in any particular field. Experience is the real education.

Impact wrote:

The whole point of school is to prepare you for the next level.

Kindergarten prepares you for elementary school...which prepares you for middle/junior...which prepares you for high school...which prepares you for college...which gives you an accreditation for choosier, elitist employers. And with so many people competing for jobs, employers almost have to look at who's got a degree in order to make it easier on them to choose who to hire.

Everything taught after grade 8 is not essential to surviving in the real world.

Agreed.

High school is secondary education. All of us go on to further education. For some of us it is College/University/Trade School, etc., for others it is education of life (which we all end up getting to.) High school has not been designed to prepare you for the real world for decades now, if it ever was. Parents have a large part of that responsibility. Too much responsibility for the education of children (other than knowledge) falls to teachers these these days. Perhaps it is a symptom of modern society. I for one would not want to be a teacher today, not worth the stress if you ask me.