Week 9: Post 1

In the section entitled "High School," it discusses something that I recently had a conversation with a friend about (Berger, 424). It states that 1/3 of high school students in the US do not intend to attend college (Berger, 425). In my high school, obviously there was a huge push for kids to apply to college and go for a four year program. When I was 16-17 years old, that is exactly what I did, I applied to all private, Catholic colleges because that is what I believed I wanted. What someone should have told me was to take a year off and think about what I wanted to do as a career. I say this because right after high school I went to HACC for a year, then to a nursing program, then to Millersville. My college career has been so scattered because I could not decide what I wanted to do, if someone would have told me to take a year off, maybe I would have know exactly what I wanted to do and not waste all this money figuring it out on the way.
Another thing I found interesting is, on page 426, 26 states require an exit exam in order for students to get their diploma. I fully agree with this because, as the text mentioned, some kids graduate with are "ill prepared" for the next step of their lives. This is true, I found that I just coasted through high school and when I got to college, I really had to adapt by finding new study habits and finding much more dedication to my school work. I think if I would have taken an exit exam, I may have not done very well even though my GPA in high school was very good. I think however, this may have a negative effect on high schoolers because some may fear the exam so badly and panic thinking that they may not pass and actually dropout of high school for that reason. If a school has an exit exam, I hope that they have a program for aiding students coping with the stress of the final exam and have a mechanism in place for helping their students become prepared for the exam well in advance.