In fairness every kid I know (about 6 or 7 I guess) who has been pushed up several years in school is generally either completely anti-social or officious and u

In fairness every kid I know (about 6 or 7 I guess) who has been pushed up several years in school is generally either completely anti-social or officious and unfriendly (I am being nice here unfortunately). Obviously that is not a complete metric; but all of them, I am sure, are that way due to a lack of social proof/interaction at a crucial point in their lives (early teens). In this case Colin seems well adjusted and "not a prick" - but there could be all manner of exterior reasons for that. It's also wrong, I think, to consider high school as training for adult social structure; it clearly is nothing like that. But it does teach you some important things - you face the same issues at the same time as everyone else (example: all of the kids I saw bumped up several levels were either incredibly sexist or had serious issues with women. Typical of the kind of insecurities you face at that age - but when everyone around you has already dealt with that it is hard to sort out). > all of use who have been out of it for at least five years can probably name a group of people who are "still in high school", to their social and professional detriment. Agreed; however I don't agree that a different way would have produced any different results. They are stuck there for a variety of reasons - none of them directly because of the high school culture.