Let’s Abolish High School

This is the title of an article published by Robert Epstein in Education Week, April 4, 2007, to which a student Robert Zahari comments: “Epstein for some reason seems nostalgic for the ‘good old days’ of child labor when children were 12 worked hour days under exploitative and dangerous conditions in impersonal factories, and seems to think that the protections we now have are unnecessary and counterproductive.” In my opinion, Robert Zahari is not offering a fair criticism of Epstein’s article. It likes pros and There are drawbacks to Epstein’s article that should be evaluated and analyzed, but Zahari gives a hasty opinion on the article On the contrary, a fair reading of Epstein’s article shows that the author does not have a preference for child labor of the type Zahari is alluding to. On the contrary, the general thesis of Epstein’s article seems to be that age is not an obstacle to intellectual and emotional achievement ells. In other words, a youth of 15 could be as or more advanced emotionally and intellectually than an adult of 25 or 35 or more.

I agree with Epstein (2007) that age is an artificial barrier to making decisions such as voting or even doing jobs that adults do. He goes on to argue, “After all, after puberty we are technically not real children, and probably for most of human history we gave birth to our young when we were quite young ourselves. It occurred to me that young people must be able to function as competent adults or the human race would most likely not exist” (Epstein 2007). I agree that people past puberty are at least physically well developed. There are also child prodigies who have reached greater intellectual, emotional, and spiritual heights from a young age. However, these are the exceptions. The fact is that we continue to grow spiritually throughout our lives. Therefore, child-adolescent-adult is a continuum rather than clearly defined stages, and hence age is an artificial barrier separating childhood from adulthood. Consequently, for the vast majority of humanity, there are things a 25-year-old can learn that a 15-year-old cannot learn, because exceptionally brilliant children are exceptional. We must also admit that “we gave birth to our young when we were quite young ourselves” is/was true at a time when science and environmental factors did not enrich human life. The average lifespan used to be 25 to 30 years. Today, the average life expectancy in the developed world is around 80 or more. Furthermore, society and lifestyle are evolutionary in nature. A hundred or more years later, it would not be surprising that with an average life expectancy of 150 or 200 years, a child would not reach majority until 35 or 40 years.

Epstein advocates abolishing high schools because they were designed or created under conditions such as the industrial revolution, the Great Depression, or for reasons such as securing the limited number of jobs for those who need them most. I can only agree with the author. However, Epstein (2007) merely states the obvious. While I agree that the school system is redundant today, I still believe that every age has always had a formal institution for education. Today we are still experimenting with home schooling, distance learning, online learning and several other forms of education. If, of course, Epstein advocates the abolition of education altogether, which of course he doesn’t, I can’t think of a more ridiculous idea, for each age has a unique repertoire of literary, social and scientific know-how and skills passed down from generation to generation generation for growth unless we want to descend into the dark ages of savagery.

The focus of Epstein’s essay is that adolescents are just as, or more, capable than adults in several ways: “Research I’ve conducted with my colleague Diane Dumas suggests that across a wide range of abilities, teenagers are just as capable as adults as competent as adults, and other research has long shown that they actually outperform adults on tests of memory, intelligence, and cognition” (Epstein 2007). As such, they should be given the freedom to learn, earn, and do whatever they need to do creatively and rewardingly, rather than be bound by hundreds of restrictions, including compulsory education. Here I completely agree with the author. However, Epstein does not provide us with a concrete arrangement scheme so that young people can express themselves to the best of their ability. What would you do when you graduate from high school? Should they be allowed to experiment with drugs, alcohol and sex? Should they remain delinquent or languish in institutions?

Nonetheless, the author identifies youthful turmoil in Western culture and society. So the obvious solution we have is to change the culture, for there are hundreds of societies that are anthropologically documented and that are free of youthful turmoil. I see no value in logic because culture is a unilinear and irreversible growth that is not determined by an individual or even by masses. Cultural growth is the result of several known and unknown factors that cannot be controlled. Several social scientists have demonstrated that a society’s culture progresses through stages from pre-industrial to post-industrial.

I agree with the author that “teens are naturally gifted young adults; to undo the damage we have done, we need to establish competency-based systems that provide opportunities and incentives for these young people to enter the adult world as quickly as possible”. I agree that teenagers are very competent. I also agree that we need to have competency-based systems. However, I can see that this is already taking place. Competent and deserving students or teenagers are filtered fairly early in life to take up sports or modeling or television or anything they excel at. However, a large majority still need technical or managerial or administrative or scientific and research skills that come with years of training.

Thanks to Ajit Kumar Jha | #Lets #Abolish #High #School