The only necessary lesson that you have to learn growing up is how to be a grown-up.
Being in high school, we get plenty of adult responsibilities, from jobs to deadlines in school, but none of the freedoms. We still have to obey every “real” adult in sight and even going to the bathroom requires permission from a qualified authority figure.
We understand that it can be hard to find a middle ground between letting a teenager run wild and treating him like a child. Few would argue with the idea that teenagers aren’t mature enough for all the freedoms that come with adulthood but on the other hand, we’re not exactly children with no sense of purpose or independence, either. Until a healthy medium is found, there will still be a shock when we enter the real world.
There just seems to be a drastic change between senior year and college. You go from having to have a pass to walk through the halls to not even being required to go to class. Because this is such a radical change, there are many who get high on all their newfound freedom and end up in trouble. Instead of gradually wading into the world of adulthood and ultimate responsibility, we are expected to jump in head first, off the high dive. Perhaps it would be better for us to slowly get more responsibility and build until we are prepared for adulthood.
Adding to the problem, the aspects of our lives that adults seem to want to let us control are the things that we need the most help on. Some don’t need assistance with remembering that they have homework, or that they need to show up to lunch, but do need help learning how to file taxes and court papers.
This middle ground can be difficult to find, especially because no matter when you start handing out responsibility someone, or multiple someones, will not be able to handle it and crack under the pressure of higher expectations. But how is cracking in college, when your grades determine your ability to get jobs after school, any better than failing in high school when you are supposed to be learning from your mistakes anyway? It makes much more sense to get your feet on the ground in high school, when you can recover thanks to help from teachers, than in college where it doesn’t really matter to anyone on campus whether you fail or not, as long as you are still playing tuition.
Life is a learning experience and students need to prepare over 12 years for the real test: being an adult, instead of cramming in a lifetime’s worth of preparation on the fly.