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I feel like I'm in the minority here (backed up by a similar discussion on reddit today), but I really enjoyed high school. I liked the classes, I felt like I k

I feel like I'm in the minority here (backed up by a similar discussion on reddit today), but I really enjoyed high school. I liked the classes, I felt like I knew what I was doing with life when I graduated and went on to college, and then there's the whole social thing that people seem hit/miss on. I made a ton of lifelong friends in high school, played on sports teams all 4 years, and evolved from a shy little kid to a reasonably social adult by the end as I gradually learned to come out of my shell. Maybe it's just the people who comment on these types of articles are the kinds of people who also didn't like school, but I personally wouldn't change my high school or college experiences for the world.

dnautics 13y ago
I liked my high school experience as well, but I went to this school: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-B_Woodlawn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-B_Woodlawn But I did attend elementary school in Japan (and had cousins who went to high school there at the same time I was) and while they may have achieved a proficiency higher than most americans, the freedom granted to me at my high school allowed me to do even better - and I was given a decidedly non-standard education emphasizing critical thinking and questioning of authority. This served me exceptionally well in college, and on through grad school and postdoctoral studies. Perhaps this is a bit of an overgeneralization, but almost all of the East Asian postdocs that I encountered did not, outwardly, exhibit as critical a stance towards data and evidence as did american postdocs - with the generalizeable exception of the East Asian postdocs who did their grad school in the States.
p4bl0 13y ago
I have had the same experience of high school as you on the social level (well, except I didn't do sport). However, I felt really close to what sillysaurus2 said about classes. Beside, thinking by myself is clearly not something I was taught in class, but was rather taught to me by my parents' education, by my social interactions with friends, and by learning how to program during middle and high school.
_delirium 13y ago
I didn't hugely enjoy school socially, but I did find the classes, well, educational. I learned a lot of things on my own or from parents as well, but in high school I had basically a few hours a day set aside to studying stuff that I might not otherwise have studied, from math to U.S. history to art theory. I also got better at communicating an argument in short (2-5 page) essay form, which has been a useful skill later in life. One additional aspect is that, while many classes were too easy/slow-paced for me, the fact that they weren't for everyone else made that a useful experience too. For one it was interesting to understand what people found easy or hard to get. For another I would often help other students with their homework, which was good practice in how to explain subjects understandably, basically in how to do tutoring.
azth 13y ago
Do you have the link to the reddit thread? :)

dnautics 13y ago

I liked my high school experience as well, but I went to this school: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-B_Woodlawn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-B_Woodlawn But I did attend elementary school in Japan (and had cousins who went to high school there at the same time I was) and while they may have achieved a proficiency higher than most americans, the freedom granted to me at my high school allowed me to do even better - and I was given a decidedly non-standard education emphasizing critical thinking and questioning of authority. This served me exceptionally well in college, and on through grad school and postdoctoral studies. Perhaps this is a bit of an overgeneralization, but almost all of the East Asian postdocs that I encountered did not, outwardly, exhibit as critical a stance towards data and evidence as did american postdocs - with the generalizeable exception of the East Asian postdocs who did their grad school in the States.

p4bl0 13y ago

I have had the same experience of high school as you on the social level (well, except I didn't do sport). However, I felt really close to what sillysaurus2 said about classes. Beside, thinking by myself is clearly not something I was taught in class, but was rather taught to me by my parents' education, by my social interactions with friends, and by learning how to program during middle and high school.

_delirium 13y ago

I didn't hugely enjoy school socially, but I did find the classes, well, educational. I learned a lot of things on my own or from parents as well, but in high school I had basically a few hours a day set aside to studying stuff that I might not otherwise have studied, from math to U.S. history to art theory. I also got better at communicating an argument in short (2-5 page) essay form, which has been a useful skill later in life. One additional aspect is that, while many classes were too easy/slow-paced for me, the fact that they weren't for everyone else made that a useful experience too. For one it was interesting to understand what people found easy or hard to get. For another I would often help other students with their homework, which was good practice in how to explain subjects understandably, basically in how to do tutoring.

azth 13y ago

Do you have the link to the reddit thread? :)