Is 4 years of high school really necessary? Why not 2 years and then college?

Only necessary because all the teachers in those rich teachers union say it is and parent can keep their kids occupied until they are 18. Otherwise what will happen to them.

I say if the kid is real smart. Go directly to college. One should be able to test out if they are smart enough.

Personal experience :: I drank I lot of beer in my 4 years of high school and if I tried to cram all of that beer drinking in to 2 years, I'd probably kill myself.

Why college anyway? There seems to be a vicious cycle going on where college degrees beget more college degrees. We have people with degrees in jobs that need no more than an eighth grade education to the point where it's necessary to have the degree to get the job. That lowers the value of the degree while shutting out people who are completely qualified from having the job. I go into retail businesses every day where there is someone with a degree who can't make change without waiting for the register to show them what they are supposed to give me back. If I give them change along with the large bill so they can give be back a 10 instead of a handfull of ones  and some coins they don't know what to do with it. I've worked retail all my life and I was counting back change when I was 10 years old.

I've spent my life as a TV tech until there was no longer any work as the trade was dying. I got a job in industry as a test tech. What a test tech does wouldn't have cut it in my TV shop. I could not have used them to diagnose and repair anything. They were hiring engineers to do what I always considered a technicians job and the engineer over me would have never cut it in my shop. He was lousy at troubleshooting electronics. When the place closed and put about 400 techs out of work along with a similar number of engineers I went to a couple of job fairs where there was rumored to be someone looking for technicians. That was one of the cruelest jokes around. There would be 300 engineers applying for a technicians job. Worse than that they would actually hire one. Engineers are notoriously bad at doing a technicians job but they got preference over the techs. That just cheapens the EE degree and takes jobs away from people who do know how to it.

I think there are way too many people going to college today and way too few training for good paying jobs that we do have that do not require a degree.

I had a girlfriend in HS that was taking college courses her junior year and then graduated after three. She never had time to do anything else but study and try to keep up with all of her class overtime. No time for me, so I dumped her.
I think if the kid wants to do it, great, more power to her or him. But they shouldn't be forced into it. I would never want my kids to skip high school. I learned too much about growing up in those four years to skip any of them. Book smarts only get you so far in life.

In the late 60s I was an instructor in the training division of a shipyard. The only other place nearby with an apprenticeship was a GE plant. We communicated with each other and they had the same problems we had with high school grads at that time. Most of them didn't know what they should have known so we had to teach high school science, English, and math for the four year apprenticeship We only accepted the ones who scored in the top percentile of our entrance test. It varied depending on how many we needed and how many applied. To get into the electronic apprenticeship they had to score above 96% but we usually filled everything with those above 90%.

Very well said, Rando. Our kids today are being forced to grow up way faster than we were and to make choices that they are not always mature enough to make. IMHO, even at 18 you are a little young to decide what it is you want to be when you grow up, unless you've known forever that you want to be a doctor, etc.....or because "everyone in my family has been a teacher since the dawn of time" type of thing. I ABSOLUTELY disagree with putting this kid into college early. Doesn't the school district have honors/AP track programs for gifted students?? Ours did, I took AP classes junior and senior year, which basically amounted to a year's worth of college courses when I graduated high school. You have to take placement tests to get the credits, but they are far more rigorous than regular high school classes and I about killed myself with the courseload I took. I too could have graduated at the end of 11th grade but wanted to stay with my friends, and I am really glad I did. I would have crashed and burned harder than I did had I started college early.

Let kids be kids as long as they can, being an adult is a tough job.

I think it depends on the child. Some are ready for that level of responsibility and would like to swap the "social" aspect of HS for a chance to get a head start...others will do better with more time spent in H.S. At any rate, even if the child is ready to move on to advanced level classes, it should be the child's decision as well as the parents; some parents are re-living their childhood vicariously through their own kids and that's hardly fair.

Okay let's back up here.
The child is not gifted, but feels most students don't attend a regular number of classes in their junior and senior year.
Most College courses are refresher courses taught in HS (basic trig, math, history, etc).
So why not go early????
Not the board take is it would create choas in the teaching ranks within HS letting kids (with their parents approval) go to College early be Community College or a major one.
Hope this helps.
S99

I strongly disagree that most college courses are refresher courses. Sure, there were advanced math classes and such in high school, but not everyone took them - I know I didn't.

I got more out of HS in my final 2 years than in the first two.

Kids should be able to take college classes if they can handle the extra work that it requires.

I don't think leaving b/c she is bored is suitable reason.

Agree, I don't think they're ready for what's coming. A better alternnative: I took 1 college class my senior year and my hs paid for it. They even paid for gas expenses. I went to hs for the first half of the day and then had my course 3 times a week in the afternoon. It was SO awesome because my best friend was opting to do this too and the school I chose was on the same campass as the high school my boyfriend attended (small Catholic college and hs). I wish faculty had offered this to all of the students, though. There are some underestimated/low achievers who wouldn't have qualified for the program, but who were not only smart enough but also mature enough to have moved on to the next phase.

i would have to say that i don't believe anyone is emotionally ready for campus life at 16. I did some of the most stupid, outrageous, immature stunts (for lack of a better word) those first two years in college and i was 18. so, like, totally.

european countries have high school kids work for a year or two before making the jump to a college campus -- strictly because most kids dont know what the hell they are even there for that first year - . they want the KIDS to have a chance to mature and it works wonderfully for people we know over there.

sorry, but i think that dad is making a huge mistake with his daughter. i know it "depends on the child" -- maybe she is 16 going on 54 -- in that case, go for it.

Granted Bob has mentioned that his daughter is more mature than her age and this was with the parents blessing. Which leads to the question of homeschool vs high school and aren't home school children doing pretty much the same thing?? S99

Now homeschooling, I think, is a very good concept if the parent gets the proper support and really works the curriculum. I have a good friend whose wife homeschools their two, and these kids are above average, I think, in intelligence and doing great! As long as you tie into a network where they still get the social participation that they'd otherwise miss not being in school, and the parents are truly invested in the kids' education, I am all for it. If I had kids and could afford to be a stay at home mom, you better believe I would homeschool mine.