Solution to US High school problems: Voluntary High school INTRODUCTION: General comments: American public schools at present face a major degradation that results in failing test rates, low graduation rates as well as raising amount of violence across the land teamed up with the lack of fundamental basic skills necessary to succeed in life. Many solutions have been proposed to stem the crisis the current US high school confronts. In the following essay the solution of creating voluntary high schools will be presented together with the benefits and possible disadvantages. Thesis (last sentence of intro).
The following essay will state that voluntary high school will give more freedom to the students to think about their future and make a decision they would find is beneficial to them, thus making the high school a place where knowledge would be searched for and not the place where knowledge if forced into the students minds. BODY: The most apparent benefit from voluntary high school is the freedom of choice for students. In other words, the students would be given an opportunity to assess their status quo and decide whether or not they want to attend the high school. The amount of knowledge learned unlike the amount of units produced or pages written cannot be objectively measured, thus if a person does not want to learn anything in high school, they years spent in high school would be wasted.
The second argument is that formal education is no guarantee to success in life. The tycoons of the past hardly got any education while one can read about young Mr. Carnegie or Mr. Rockefeller studying at night or constantly trying to find a newspaper to read and learn on their own. None of them had finished high school. The worlds richest man of present, Bill Gates, although, having finished high school, dropped out of college (Harvard) finding it absolutely useless for his future career. Similar examples of people doing well in life without high school can be found in other areas besides business and in other countries besides the USA.
The third argument for voluntary high school is the educational system itself. Being highly standardized, the US high school for the most part offers the same subjects to the students across the land. After the graduation the students have the same standard way of thinking that possibly impedes their uniqueness and creativity in thinking. It is no wonder why the USA at present is still in search of foreign experts that did not finish US formal education (high schools) and possess conceptually different way of thinking. If the high school is voluntary, the students will try to pursue their careers independently deriving knowledge from other then dry-and-cut standardized high school education facilities thus increasing the countrys knowledge horizons. Speaking about the possible disadvantages that the voluntary high school will present one should note the fact that people do not always act logically.
In other words, many students who at present do not know what they want to be life may abandon the education and start working at low paying jobs that to them at that point of their lives would appear as the most useful. Of course the country would benefit from a great number of waiters, or hamburger-makers, yet it would be limited in the knowledge base that would be created if these people attended high school. The students may not necessarily use their freedom to choose the right education to indeed pursue some career but can rather agree on some easy way to get cash that is limited to entry jobs. The second refutation is that although this country had witnessed Rockefellers, Carnegies, Morgans and Gates the number of people who achieved the same heights without formal education like these people is extremely low. Thus one can state that high school does not guarantee future full of roses, it still increases the students chances to become successful in life. Conclusion: in conclusion it should be stated that the voluntary education in US high schools is a topic that has both its advantages and disadvantages. Even though it indeed provides freedom of choice, opportunity to get knowledge from other than standardized institution, the students may not necessarily use such freedom logically and successfully.
Even though the US and world history had shown numerous examples of people doing well without high school, the number of these people is less then desired. Thus one can say that whether or not high school voluntary school is truly advantageous idea is a matter of subjective judgment while that incorporates such variables like student logical thinking about their future, and the means of these students to get other education to succeed in life..