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Escaping High School

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Re: Escaping High School

#161

Post by zls »

dmvdoug wrote: post #144

> Maybe you go to a school in a poor area, or with a lot of violence, or far too many students for the teachers to pay any individual attention to; or, relatedly, maybe you’re required to spend a lot of time caring for siblings or parents, working a low-skill job, or holding your family together or preserving your safety in some way. The disadvantages of this case are obvious, but there are a few advantages too; the…

I went to a school like this for most of my youth and I’m with you. The only real strategy is to be lucky, whether it’s by having good parents or by incidentally avoiding the abundant pitfalls.

Edit: resisting peer pressure shouldn’t be worried about because it’s “the spice of life”? Yikes

Re: Escaping High School

#162

Post by [deleted] »

costanzaDynasty wrote: post #152
dmvdoug wrote: post #144

> Maybe you go to a school in a poor area, or with a lot of violence, or far too many students for the teachers to pay any individual attention to; or, relatedly, maybe you’re required to spend a lot of time caring for siblings or parents, working a low-skill job, or holding your family together or preserving your safety in some way. The disadvantages of this case are obvious, but there are a few advantages too; the…

My life only got better after I quit school at 15. At the end, I had so much outside distraction, that I couldn't put up the front at school anymore. I just needed sometime free from chaos.

[deleted]

Re: Escaping High School

#163

Post by abecedarius »

CSMastermind wrote: post #138
BirAdam wrote: post #9

Personally, I’ve always felt that schooling is a waste of time, money, and resources. The default model of civilization is that children are absent from life. This means that kids are missing out on seeing adults interact, so they mature more slowly, and it also means that their life experiences are limited to what happens in a building. Importantly, after 18 years, people in the USA leave school in debt and are no b…

> Importantly, after 18 years, people in the USA leave school in debt and are no better suited to professional life than when they entered school at 4 or 5. I'm not aware of anyone in the US going into to debt for school before the age of 18. Are you confusing the free public education that's offered throughout the US with the optional college education that some, though definitely not most, take out loans to attend?

18 years of school, not age

Re: Escaping High School

#164

Post by gloryjulio »

dmvdoug wrote: post #144

> Maybe you go to a school in a poor area, or with a lot of violence, or far too many students for the teachers to pay any individual attention to; or, relatedly, maybe you’re required to spend a lot of time caring for siblings or parents, working a low-skill job, or holding your family together or preserving your safety in some way. The disadvantages of this case are obvious, but there are a few advantages too; the…

I agree. There are no good solutions. Only how lucky the children are on whether having good parents

Re: Escaping High School

#165

Post by Scubabear68 »

ModernMech wrote: post #128
Scubabear68 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids aren’t top students at all. They both have learning disabilities. My son is highly sports oriented, my daughter is very musical. They both have trouble with traditional subjects. They both got “B”s in public school, despite their standardized tests showing them in the 15-20th percentile. They both struggled with their knowledge deficit transitioning into the private school. They are doing very well now. Not s…

"B" students are in fact top students. That you think they aren't is one of the things I've been pushing back on in my career. I have several learning disabilities including dyslexia and ADHD and was also a top student, so those aren't exactly determinative. Many of my top students are neurodivergent. I get a dozen letters every semester from my top students regarding their learning disabilities. Excelling in sports…

I’m sorry, are you indicating you know my kids better than I do?

The kids got “B”s because everyone who showed up got Bs. It was social promotion.

This became painfully obvious when the first marking period scores in many classes was F and D in the private school. And was backed up by equally bad standardized testing scores.

Re: Escaping High School

#166

Post by benji-york »

Nasrudith wrote: post #160
benji-york wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a name for this tactic of projecting motivations on others in order to explain their behaviors?

Theory of mind.

I see where you were going, but I don't think Theory of Mind quite fits.

ToM says that a person understands someone else to have their own knowledge, ideas, motivations, etc. But this behavior is not simply understanding that others have their own motivations, but imputing negative motivations onto others.

Re: Escaping High School

#167

Post by op00to »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #11
op00to wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m confused. Are you suggesting children should be working?

As I read the parent's point, I think he is advocating for kids seeing their parents work more often. As it is, kids in US don't experience the reality often. More than that, parents shield them from the reality as long as it is possible, because the reality mostly sucks. I would think of it as 'take your kids to work', but more often. I am not a big fan. I was coming to my dad's car shop after school and I can't hon…

I thought this was only me! For me, my dad was self employed as an "accountant" of sorts, and specialized in what might be called forensic accounting of Medicare reimbursements. He dragged 12 year old me into hospital data processing centers at 3am to print records so he could do his work.

In this case, he had a certain amount of records to print in the time allotted, and he needed two operators to make the window. I learned a lot of useless knowledge about which medical procedures qualify for extra reimbursement for Medicare, and also what Sunset Park, Queens looked like at 3am. Nothing really useful in life.

I think if my dad had hired someone and let me sleep and play on the computer instead, that probably would have turned out better for me.

Re: Escaping High School

#168

Post by op00to »

Mezzie wrote: post #38
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I read the parent's point, I think he is advocating for kids seeing their parents work more often. As it is, kids in US don't experience the reality often. More than that, parents shield them from the reality as long as it is possible, because the reality mostly sucks. I would think of it as 'take your kids to work', but more often. I am not a big fan. I was coming to my dad's car shop after school and I can't hon…

They probably expect the kids to be involved/help, but that depends a lot on the parents' jobs. Like I was of some help to my dad in elementary school (helped him with basic IT/networking/data stuff), but my mom worked with biohazards that had very good reason for not wanting children around so any time we had to go to mom's work we were locked in a break room for hours.

Back when my dad had an office job, I would visit him in his office. We'd be locked in a room with a (fancy for the time) IBM PS/2 for 8 hours. It blew.

Re: Escaping High School

#169

Post by jrm4 »

This is wonderful, and I say that as someone who did REALLY WELL in high-school. Which is to say, I have no regrets about any of my schooling (I went on to complete law school) -- but if I'd thought about things more in this way, it would have better mentally prepared me for thinking about AFTER that.

Re: Escaping High School

#170

Post by squokko »

I really like the author's advice to do the "real" thing instead of the "kid" thing. This is what kids in more primitive societies do... if the family is subsistence farmers, the kids are helping do economically productive work from the moment they can. Even in farming communities in the US, kids are driving tractors, fixing cars, actually doing real adult work. Important for kids in the knowledge worker segment to do the same.
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