High school and college are both educational systems meant to help us learn more about history, sciences, math, and help us develop social skills we will need when we join the workforce. But for all the similarities the educational institutions share, they have highly contrasting end results. In my opinion, high school is the basis upon which the solid foundation of our college lives shall be based upon. College then serves as the jumping board for the responsible adults that we finally evolve into. That is why the educational systems have markedly different teaching and learning styles.
High school and college are fun times that we experience during our stint in the educational system. But, the kind of fun that we have to vary on different levels due to the responsibilities entailed as a person. In high school, we have a lot of fun socially, because we are teenagers who are newly experiencing what life has to offer. We are young and carefree and have enough time on our hands to fulfill our educational obligations as well as our social needs. In college, however, we are now young adults who are experiencing the newfound freedom of being on our own for the first time and making our own decisions that will affect our future. Both times allow us to mature as individuals, to a certain degree.
Education-wise, high school is the time for us to ponder our strengths and weaknesses as students and to realize what our potential future occupation might be. In other words, we lay the foundation, the groundwork if you may, for our college education. For some students, high school is not really that much fun because of the way the educational system dictates what we learn, how we learn it and grades us according to our perceived academic strengths and weaknesses. We learn what we have force-fed information because most subjects could be of no interest to us because what we learn in high school will help us decide on our ambitions and future college courses. But, the forced feeding then poses a degree of difficulty when it comes to learning and/or excelling within any particular learning area. College, on the other hand, offers a much more engaging and enjoyable academic experience due to the fact that we are more in control of our education.
College is the first step towards fulfilling our lifelong ambitions and dreams. This time, we choose the subject we want to study and concentrate on an academic area that interests us or that we excel in. The grades this time around are based upon how much time and effort we put into what academically interests us as students. High school was the dry run for our future young adult lives. We learned the rudimentary social skills that will help us deal with the diverse personalities that shall be part of our lives when we enter college. On the other hand, college life is our jumping board as full-fledged adults. We learn the art of negotiation and social blending. We also learn the skills that we will need in order to succeed in our chosen occupation upon graduation.
I, therefore, repeat my previous statement that high school and college are different due to the end results that are produced. High school is the time that the child is separating from the young adult while college is that time in our lives when the young adult is slowly emerging as an improved version of his younger self. If you want more proof of what I am saying, take the time to talk to your parents about their high school and college experiences. Then ask them the same questions I posed above. I am sure you will be amazed at the imaginative answers you will receive from them.