Don’t Undervalue the High School Experience

Volume 19: Issue 2

Increasingly, high school has turned into a stepping stone, a proving ground, an incubator for the bigger experience: college. High schools, especially ones who market themselves as “college prep,” teach and pressure their students to write, work, and think in ways teachers believe should prepare them for college expectations. Students go through these four years worried and anxious about whether they’ve done enough and earned the right grades in the right classes to get accepted into their dream college. So, is that the central purpose of high school? Is that what we should value the most in the high school experience? 

There are certain experiences in high school that don’t quite exist anywhere else after high school. The relationships we develop in high school are quite different than in college. One joke about high school is you’re forced to make friends. In college, you’re on your own to find experiences to make friends and bond with them. High school structures these bonding experiences. Theater, music, sports, retreats, small class sizes, dances, prom. While most of these experiences still exist in life beyond high school, they’re much more accessible and abundant in a small private school like Vistamar. These aren’t “college prep” experiences. They’re integral to the high school experience.

High school is the last time you’ll experience many things. I doubt that many people after graduating high school ever get back into a ballgown or tuxedo for a formal evening event with their best friends, outside of a wedding. When’s the next time you’ll do an overnighter with your musical castmates or travel to an away game with your school team? You might have deep, intellectual conversations in a college class, but will it be with your close friends who you can nudge and wink at? And I’m certain Morning Meeting, the most Vistamarian tradition, does not show up anywhere else ever.

To be certain, college is an exciting time. You’ll make friends, have a good time, and learn a few things along the way. However, it’s a different time than high school. The difference is what makes high school a valuable experience. If we worry too much about shaping the experience and opportunities for the sake of the college application, then we lose the intrinsic value. Let’s continue to make the high school experience rewarding and valuable for ourselves, not just for what colleges want.