I think that high school would be much more beneficial to students if it was structured more like college. I’ve been at college for two years now and I feel as though I’ve learned ten times more than I did in my four years in high school. High school teachers seem to let students believe that their degree of success in high school will mirror their success in college. I don’t necessary agree with this comparison. There are plenty of students that didn’t do well in high school that excel in college. This is where he paradox is in my opinion. You need good grades in high school to get into college, but you might not do well. On the other hand, if a high school student doesn’t do well, they can’t even get into college where they might likely succeed.
Here are the differences that I have noticed in my two years at UMass… In high school, you will not do well on an essay unless it is exactly five paragraphs. I had a college professor once tell me he didn’t care if my paper was 5 sentences, as long as I got my point across. In high school, you have to be at the school everyday by around 7:30 and you pretty much sit down and get lectured to until around 2:30. In college you make your own schedule, rarely attending class after class for 6 hours everyday. In high school, there are rarely exceptions or reasons to discuss things with teachers. In college, professors will listen to you and will make exceptions when reasonable. Students generally care more about their classes in college because they are classes that they chose and have an interest in.
High school success, or lack of success is not necessarily the greatest indicator of college success. They really are two very different learning and social environments.