4 ms·

Not sure how accurate your profile is, but if you're still 16 and thus in high-school you may not appreciate just how different the real world is. And that exac

Not sure how accurate your profile is, but if you're still 16 and thus in high-school you may not appreciate just how different the real world is. And that exactly is why it is so damaging. In school there are a small number of people that are given authority over a huge swath of your life completely arbitrarily. This affects how you act and spend your time. This is completely opposite to how things work in the real world. Another issue is that you're surrounded primarily with people of the same age. That is children/teenagers that similarly have little to no external life experience. In the real world you are surrounded by people of many demographics (age, ethnicity, background, etc). Physical violence in white-collar workplaces (which is what I imagine most readers here would be working at) is near non-existent vs being at school where it's a very real threat for many people. The concept of responsibility and bills. This is not directly about school, but often a result of school. Because you're in school you don't really have any bills of your own. You're placed in an artificial construct where your parents take care of most of your major bills (housing, food) and you are not forced to make your own income - and in fact many people are discouraged from finding employment during their school years because it may "impact their studies". So the essential life skills of managing a budget, balancing income and bills, etc don't get learned at all. You don't see yourself as "damaged" because you don't understand or imagine what is possible outside of the school environment. While you can communicate with your peers, how well can you communicate to managers in a company? Can you sell a service or product to someone? Can you ask the right questions to find out what someone's true pain point is and not get distracted by their proposed solution? If you left school right now (or 5 years ago) and had to make it on your own, you'd obviously be a very very different person today. Is that person better than you are now? Obviously that's impossible to say. But if that person is/would be better, then you can argue that your current self is damaged relatively speaking.

DanBC 12y ago
> But if that person is/would be better, then you can argue that your current self is damaged relatively speaking. That's a weird interpretation of personal development.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
samirmenon 12y ago
I'm actually quite hurt by this comment. Firstly, I have worked for the past three years as a software developer. I've had to deliver things to a manager, figure out exactly what a client wants, and work collaboratively. I think that I've at least had a taste of the "real world". Secondly, the idea that I lack some kind of mental capability to "understand or imagine what is possible outside of the school" is deeply flawed, and frankly unfounded. In fact, the condescension that arises from this statement is exactly the kind of attitude towards children that discourages them from taking risks and exploring independently. I hope the next time you talk to or meet a 16 year old, you don't assume that they lack any ability to understand the "real world".
- learc83 12y ago
  >I hope the next time you talk to or meet a 16 year old, you don't assume that they lack any ability to understand the "real world". Most 16 year olds in the developed world do lack an ability to understand the "real world" (by that I mean the adult experience) because 16 year olds lack adult responsibility by default. Having a part time job is not the same as working to provide food and shelter for you and your family. At 16 your parents shield you from the freedoms and consequences that come with being an adult, and with no experience of those freedoms and consequences, you can't really internalize what it means to be an adult. In addition, the human brain doesn't fully develop until around 25, so your judgment at 16 is fundamentally flawed. There's nothing wrong with being 16, but in 10 years you'll look back and laugh at 90% of what you know right now.
  - samirmenon 12y ago
    Absolutely. I hope that every year of my life, I look back, and laugh at the things I 'knew' 10 years ago. Is it the same for you? The oft-repeated idea of an "underdeveloped" teenage brain is a bit old. Scientific American did a piece on it in 2007. (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-myth-of-the-teen-brain/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-myth-of-the-te...)
    - learc83 12y ago

DanBC 12y ago

> But if that person is/would be better, then you can argue that your current self is damaged relatively speaking. That's a weird interpretation of personal development.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

samirmenon 12y ago

I'm actually quite hurt by this comment. Firstly, I have worked for the past three years as a software developer. I've had to deliver things to a manager, figure out exactly what a client wants, and work collaboratively. I think that I've at least had a taste of the "real world". Secondly, the idea that I lack some kind of mental capability to "understand or imagine what is possible outside of the school" is deeply flawed, and frankly unfounded. In fact, the condescension that arises from this statement is exactly the kind of attitude towards children that discourages them from taking risks and exploring independently. I hope the next time you talk to or meet a 16 year old, you don't assume that they lack any ability to understand the "real world".

learc83 12y ago
>I hope the next time you talk to or meet a 16 year old, you don't assume that they lack any ability to understand the "real world". Most 16 year olds in the developed world do lack an ability to understand the "real world" (by that I mean the adult experience) because 16 year olds lack adult responsibility by default. Having a part time job is not the same as working to provide food and shelter for you and your family. At 16 your parents shield you from the freedoms and consequences that come with being an adult, and with no experience of those freedoms and consequences, you can't really internalize what it means to be an adult. In addition, the human brain doesn't fully develop until around 25, so your judgment at 16 is fundamentally flawed. There's nothing wrong with being 16, but in 10 years you'll look back and laugh at 90% of what you know right now.
- samirmenon 12y ago
  Absolutely. I hope that every year of my life, I look back, and laugh at the things I 'knew' 10 years ago. Is it the same for you? The oft-repeated idea of an "underdeveloped" teenage brain is a bit old. Scientific American did a piece on it in 2007. (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-myth-of-the-teen-brain/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-myth-of-the-te...)
  - learc83 12y ago