Do high schools teach anything truly useful?

I'm an American university professor (chemistry) at a large, highly ranked state university. The safest assessment of American high schools is that they are very uneven in quality. I once had an undergraduate who did research for me who was able to go through my freshman class list and, based on the Houston-area high schools from which the students came, he was able to do a remarkably good job in predicting the students' performance. Some American high schools produce outstanding students who are able to go straight into sophomore classes in chemistry (organic) and do very well.

The home-schooled kids often do very well and the best I've seen are outstanding, but then we don't see those who were home-schooled for the purpose of indoctrinating them with creationist garbage - they are often pathetically ignorant, at least insofar as science and mathematics are concerned - and they aren't able to gain admission to the university. Basically, I suspect that the quality of home-schooled kids is as variable as the quality of those who went through public high schools, it is just that you haven't been exposed to those who are brainwashed by their fundamentalist parents because they aren't at your university.

I agree with the professor who points out that high schools vary greatly in their quality. It seems logical that the same is true of homeschooling and its students. Your implied statement that because you are successful, and your boyfriend, friends and classmates are less so, that it is therefore true that this holds true for all homeschooled and schooled students is faulty logic. Your success or failure has no relation to the successes of other homeschooled students.

I also want to point out that you sound as though you're boasting. FSU is ranked 48th among public universities. That's good, but it's better known as a football powerhouse. You also commit your own writing errors. Your sentence below is a run-on:

Besides social skills (and that's really up for debate) do today's high schools teach anything that actually helps to prepare a student for post-secondary education and adult life? I've noticed students who can barely read and write, have no study or time management skills, take no accountability for the quality of their work, don't understand how to do research and solve problems without a teacher, etc, etc, and this is a very high ranking state university.

In addition, you've asked a question not too long ago about basic algebra. I'm sure if you pick at my writing, you'll find errors. That is my point. We all make them. You would learn a lot more if measured your successes with your achievements rather than by judging others. It really doesn't leave a good impression of homeschooled students in the eyes of others.

2. There is a LOT that he doesn't know ...which I've had to show him about issues like taxes; marketing; communication; record-keeping; setting up business properly etc. And I'm still trying to get him to become much better at managing his money. In short... he has a LOT to learn but finishing high school would not teach those things. Thats exactly why he needs to finish HS or get his GED. Once he does that he can go on to get a higher education which CAN teach him those things.

I attended public schools and graduated from a top ten ranked public university last year. I'm taking a couple of years off before I apply to graduate schools. Like you, I felt I had no difficulties adjusting academically or socially. Neither did I know a lot of students who struggled greatly. Of course university was more demanding than high school; it is for everyone. My cousin graduated from my high school and has attended community college on and off for the last five years. I have a few homeschooled acquaintances, including a few I met at university. They are as different in their accomplishments as my cousin and I are. Besides as young adults, we aren't done learning. For all I know, my cousin might just move on and become as successful as I will be.

Here are a few of the academics I learned in high school:

~ Adequate writing and research skills for college level humanities courses.

~ Calculus. I didn't need to take extra classes to prepare for higher level math courses.

~ An adequate understanding of biology, chemistry and physics to succeed in my science courses.

~ Enough critical thinking skills to understand that it wasn't only the high school that made me and my cousin quite different in our accomplishments. It was our personal choices as well. I'm sure there are some very successful students who graduated with your brothers, if you're going to blame the schools solely for their failures, give the high school the credit for the successful students as well. Logically though, school isn't the only factor in anyone's success or failure in life. By your logic, I would have to give homeschooling all the credit and blame to the varied successes of the homeschooled people I know. It isn't just homeschooling that made my friends at university successful. Nor is it what made my neighbors from growing up who were homeschooled boast at their "university educations" (they attended a trade school) and management careers (as fast food shift managers). Not that there is anything wrong with either of those choices, but their personal choices were as significant as their schooling style.

Here are some other things I learned in high school:

~ Inside or outside of school, there will always be a group of people who think they are better, either because of their clothes, money, where they went to school (or didn't), their religion, or social group.

~ That their opinions about me are meaningless.

~ Likewise, that my opinions of how well they are prepared for life (or university) are meaningless. It's a waste of my time to evaluate other students' writing skills, time management or research skills. It's the teachers' (professors') opinions that matter.

~ That there are a lot more interesting ways to spend a Saturday night than to ponder other people's weaknesses.

~ That our perception of ourselves often isn't how others view us.

I honestly believe I could have learned these lessons as well if I had been homeschooled. However, it wasn't my choice. My choice was as good as the alternative, because I made it as good.

If you're running into kids who can barely read, write, and do math, you are NOT at a good university. Maybe you set your standards too low. There are far too many kids going to college who really shouldn't be there. But the kids who did well and succeeded in high school are very likely to do so in college as well. Of course high school teach useful skills.

Well, my high school, well, actually my teachers in high school, taught tons of useful things (academic, social, physical, moral... name it, they taught it) . Honestly, my high school life was way, way more tragic than university life.

Guess it did serve to be a very good training ground. It made my current life smooth sailing.

Oh, and by the way, ALL my classmates in high school are having a smooth sailing university life now (hehehe).

I guess it's just the high school's system of teaching...

What your seeing is that many kids can graduate high school without being challenged. And no, public school is not that great and I can't believe parents are so naive to believe kids are really learning there. Not unless they are in maybe AP. Otherwise, absolutely not. But its usually the AP students who go on to University anyway.

i was home schooled ,and im fine

You're absolutely right.

I didn't learn one thing of use to me in Highschool. Everything necessary to my life, I learnt myself when the need arose.

Highschool only teaches kids that they have to be fed information, that they can only socialise within a certain group of people their own age and how to not care.