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Beach High School

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Re: Beach High School

#31

Post by [deleted] »

musicale wrote: post #11
austinl wrote: post #3

> I'm often asked a question like, "How are you able to award a diploma on the basis of nothing other than an essay and a letter of support?" The answer to this very reasonable question has two parts. First, I'm in a legal position to offer a diploma on this basis simply because there are no mandated requirements, in California law or anywhere else, for graduation from a private high school. (California law sets many…

> A co-worker of mine formed her own private high school — while in public high school — and then graduated herself from it. She was running a successful business already, so it made sense to her at the time. "Teachers hate her: smart student figures out secret hack for early graduation from high school!" :) Minimal-requirement/self-directed HS does sound like it could be great for some students. College courses are…

[deleted]

Re: Beach High School

#32

Post by jcims »

oorza wrote: post #30
anonymousiam wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people have a learning style that is not compatible with public high school. This is true for both me and my kids. All of us had problems in school and were evaluated to see if we had learning disabilities. We all tested above the 98 percentile and were in AT/GATE programs. Also, we all tested out of high school via the CHSPE. For me, it was a choice that I have never regretted (except for not going to the prom)…

Honestly sounds like you, and to a lesser extent your children, needed high school for non-academic reasons as much as most people need it for academic reasons. If you have problems in school and test in the top 2% of intelligence, you have problems in other areas that need to be addressed, and can be in a social classroom. Speaking from experience.

I think you have to allow for the possibility that not all high schools have ’social classrooms’. Mine was filled with a bunch of children in adult bodies operating on hormones and hairspray. I hated it so much I didn’t want to be surrounded by it in college and decided to commute instead. I dropped out after three years.

I was also fortunate to find a career path that didn’t require a degree, and while my oldest child had no choice based on her career interests, I’m having the same struggle with my youngest who’s in her freshman year with an undecided major.

Re: Beach High School

#33

Post by mbg721 »

austinl wrote: post #3

> I'm often asked a question like, "How are you able to award a diploma on the basis of nothing other than an essay and a letter of support?" The answer to this very reasonable question has two parts. First, I'm in a legal position to offer a diploma on this basis simply because there are no mandated requirements, in California law or anywhere else, for graduation from a private high school. (California law sets many…

Even much more minor versions of hacks like that play well in US interviews, IME. Nobody wants to see the straight-laced head-down academic--they want the smirking rebel who broke all the rules and drove the homecoming float anyway. (Never mind that the people who broke the rules four years earlier now have criminal records for netsending "hi" to everyone in the school.) One of the things nobody tells you in college is what low regard employers have of college metrics, to the point that they actively reward subverting it even while they require the degree.

Re: Beach High School

#34

Post by cbkeller »

anonymousiam wrote: post #9

I tested out of high school at 15 by way of the California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE). I was free to enroll in Jr. college and to work full time. I even bought my own car at 16. Both of my kids did the same thing, but today the minimum age for taking the test is 16, so they had to suffer one year more than I did.

I did this too, it was great. I’m sometimes surprised by how few of the people around me in academia seem to have done anything similar.

Re: Beach High School

#35

Post by thethethethe »

oorza wrote: post #30
anonymousiam wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people have a learning style that is not compatible with public high school. This is true for both me and my kids. All of us had problems in school and were evaluated to see if we had learning disabilities. We all tested above the 98 percentile and were in AT/GATE programs. Also, we all tested out of high school via the CHSPE. For me, it was a choice that I have never regretted (except for not going to the prom)…

Honestly sounds like you, and to a lesser extent your children, needed high school for non-academic reasons as much as most people need it for academic reasons. If you have problems in school and test in the top 2% of intelligence, you have problems in other areas that need to be addressed, and can be in a social classroom. Speaking from experience.

This is kind of rude. You are flat out saying that OP and their children likely have problems because they are both smart and don't go to school. Have you ever considered that school might be the problem? That maybe it doesn't work for everyone the same? Speaking from experience.

Re: Beach High School

#36

Post by astura »

austinl wrote: post #3

> I'm often asked a question like, "How are you able to award a diploma on the basis of nothing other than an essay and a letter of support?" The answer to this very reasonable question has two parts. First, I'm in a legal position to offer a diploma on this basis simply because there are no mandated requirements, in California law or anywhere else, for graduation from a private high school. (California law sets many…

My cousin went to a private high school to set him straight. It worked and he graduated and the school really improved his overall behavior and outlook in life.

Now, this was a real school with real paying students who physically went there everyday, real work, and real qualifications for graduation. However, he found out the hard way that it didn't count at all, because his high school wasn't accredited. He constantly had roadblocks put up in front of him because as far as anyone who mattered was concerned he didn't graduate high school because his school wasn't accredited.

He ended up having to get his GED in order to get into massage therapy school. Once he got his GED everything was fine - that "high school equivalent" hard qualification needed for literally everything he was trying to do in life.

So being cutesy with creating your own high school will work just as well as saying you have a degree from the school of hard knocks.

Most community colleges will partner with local high schools allow high performing high schoolers to dual enroll, couple people I know did that.

Re: Beach High School

#37

Post by throwawaysea »

I wish I knew about this option growing up. Public schooling was a massive time sink full of problematic social dynamics that made life difficult but imparted no life lessons, lots of busy work and time consuming but worthless projects, and odd curricula dictated by the state but not useful in life or career.

I did my best learning on my own time, but of course that time was limited since I still had to attend school and also lose free time to homework. My parents would much rather have had vouchers and school choice, or at least the freedom to have me not attend any school, and instead spend my time in a self guided manner (or guided by my parents or some other person or group of our choosing).

I think such freedoms are especially required in this day and age, where schools are turning into ideological battlegrounds to propagandize children. Maybe that was always how it was to some extent, but it seems much more blatant today, with states like CA mandating ethnic studies, and schools injecting politics (like BLM) and critical race theory into schools.

Ultimately I see the massive centralization of education as being at odds with both the individuality of children and also parental choice over how they want to raise their kids. It’s especially dark how far parents’ rights are being reduced when you look at situations like Loudoun County’s schools in Virginia tweeting about silencing parents (https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/29/loudoun-county-crazy-di...). What little choice parents have today is already at risk, with academic ideologues like Harvard’s Elizabeth Bartholet calling for a ban on homeschooling (https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemcshane/2020/04/21/harvards...).

Re: Beach High School

#38

Post by throwawaysea »

peterfield wrote: post #24
austinl wrote: post #3

> I'm often asked a question like, "How are you able to award a diploma on the basis of nothing other than an essay and a letter of support?" The answer to this very reasonable question has two parts. First, I'm in a legal position to offer a diploma on this basis simply because there are no mandated requirements, in California law or anywhere else, for graduation from a private high school. (California law sets many…

When deciding to home school our children for a year or two whilst living in Colorado - we considered paying some of these registered "setup-your-own-curriculum private home school service providers". When discussing on the phone with them - not one was ever able to give me a meaningful answer to "do your service actually provides anything that I could not do myself for free in a few minutes?"

I’m not sure what value they provide today but my prediction is that with continued momentum from teachers unions shutting down alternate education options, such services will provide legitimacy or certification to meet state imposed requirements in name only, so that parents retain freedoms to educate their own children as they see fit with the service providing a shield against the state.

Re: Beach High School

#39

Post by ramraj07 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #10
austinl wrote: post #3

> I'm often asked a question like, "How are you able to award a diploma on the basis of nothing other than an essay and a letter of support?" The answer to this very reasonable question has two parts. First, I'm in a legal position to offer a diploma on this basis simply because there are no mandated requirements, in California law or anywhere else, for graduation from a private high school. (California law sets many…

Completing high school is one of those things that isn't a big deal for some people who are already on a good track, are broadly intelligent. But I'm going to guess the overwhelming majority of people who think it isn't for them actually need it quite a bit. I also think for self motivated intellectual kids, completing high school anyways really isn't much of a roadblock or time waster.

For the people who you categorise as “thinking they don’t need it but they do”, do they really? It’s not like the majority of the folks around you remember an aorta of anything they learned in HS. The only things they remember are probably the things that happened outside of it. Not saying it’s justified that they skip HS but I feel like there’s more thought needed.

Re: Beach High School

#40

Post by ramraj07 »

felipemnoa wrote: post #18
jf wrote: post #8

In California one can also take the CHSPE: https://www.cde.ca.gov/Ta/tg/sp/ Many of my homeschooled peers took the CHSPE at 16 then enrolled in a local Jr College and graduated at 18 with an AA

>>16 then enrolled in a local Jr College and graduated at 18 with an AA I could definitely have graduated from high school a bit earlier if I had wanted to but didn't see the need. I was one of those weird kids that did not actually want to graduate from high school because I liked it so much.

No one should ever take away from a kid something they like doing. For you apparently it was going to HS but I imagine for many many of your peers it was not as much fun.
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