Let Teenagers Try Adulthood

Cebrina Webb
Mr. Kautzer
AP English
2B
September 30, 2012

Essay: Let Teenagers Try Adulthood ; Leon Botstein

I personally agree with Botstein’s theory that high school is over rated and used as an isolation or holding cell preventing students from witnessing the real world because in high school we are educated on the basics things that are needed to get into college (reading, writing, math, and science) but we are barely educated about the real world and how to survive in it. For example, in this article page 153, Botstein states " In no work-place, not even colleges or universities, is there such a narrow segmentation by chronology” His statement is absolutely correct. In the real world, you’ll be working with people who may be 2x older or 2x younger then you are, which as in high school, everyone in your grade is about your age unless they have stayed back or skipped a grade. In my opinion this is a setup! Principals, teachers and administrators know all too well that the real world is nowhere near setup like high school. Teaching children a strategy for 4 consecutive and expecting them after the 4 years are up to know automatically how to live and how to survive in the real world is in-human. Another example, on page 154 Botstein states “Elementary school should begin at age 4 or 5 and end with the sixth grade. We should entirely abandon the concept of middle school and junior high school. Beginning with the seventh grade, there should be four years of secondary education that we may call high school. Young people should graduate at 16 rather than 18.” I don’t entirely agree with this statement but i get where Botstein’s coming from. If students did graduate at 16 instead of 18, eventually we would adapt to the real world faster so when we actually turn 21 and are considered “adults” we will have an idea on how the real world works instead of being 18, on your own and blindsided because you weren’t taught the skills needed to survive.