Should High School Represent College?
One of the dilemmas concerning the education system is how to regard the concept of high school. Although using high school as a college preparation process possesses beneficial attributes, with the increase in standardized testing and high school courses that are supposed to resemble college, the idea of high school existing as an experience in itself has faded.
High school used to be regarded as part of the progression of the education process. It was viewed within its own context, with its own standards, expectations, and objectives. However, over the years, with the increase in the number of individuals that attend college, an increase in mechanisms by which to prepare high school students for college has become a significant part of the curriculum. While exposing high school students to college standards and helping them to direct their path of study are not bad attributes, in the process of this, the meaning of high school has become obscure.
During the first year of high school, students are typically introduced to their new environment, and the requirements they need to achieve in order to be successful during these next four years. During the first year, students take the assigned classes and complete the designated tests.
The trouble begins within the second year of high school, when suddenly, students have more choice in their direction of focus. Some students may begin to take Advanced Placement, or AP, courses. The reason students begin to take these courses are that the AP courses are designed to prepare high school students for college courses, as well as provide them the opportunity of receiving college credit, depending on their performance on the AP exam. However, because there are only so many classes that an individual can take within each year of high school, at times electives, or other non-AP courses are forsaken so that students can take the AP courses. The conflict that arises consists of the idea that, it is good for the students to take the AP courses so that they can prepare for college, but at the same time, they may not have the ability to partake in some of the electives offered in high school that are not offered in all the colleges.
In the second year of high school, students also begin to take the standardized tests which reveal where they should direct their focus of study and which colleges they should try to apply to, depending on the value of their score. It is good that these tests have the ability to represent such possibilities, however, at this period in time, not all students may be sure of where they want to direct their studies. Nevertheless, because of the personal reflections on intelligence that these standardized tests reveal, scoring badly on all of them can really decrease self-esteem.
Even though all students have their own options of which courses to take and how to regard high school, the decisions of their peers, and the general attitude of society can reflect their choices. For example, a student that may not want to sign up for their first AP within the tenth grade may feel pressure to because their classmates have already done so.
One of the most frequent discussions that adults tend to engage with in high school students, is whether or not they have thought about which college they want to attend, or what they want to do, or where they have applied to college, or where they are going to go to college. Never, in all my years, have I ever heard the question “Well, do you like high school?” We each have our own opinions.
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