Is high school (12 years) really enough?

[Anonymous]

I keep running into people who have only 12 years of education. It shows. Is it really enough for people to have a decent life?

Updates

3 mo

So you may want to take a look at my other questiononGaG, "Does your job bring meaning to your life beyond just earning money?" I'm contemplating the connection between this question and the other one. Perhaps you'd care to answer both questions?

Updates

3 mo

I really should have asked the question, "Is it enough to have a decent job?" instead of asking, "Is it enough to have a decent life?"I don't think it's nearly enough to have a decent job.

[slatyb]

Mostly people educate themselves. People who want an education will get one. People who don't won't, and it's a waste of time to force uninterested teens to sit through years of high school. They should learn a skilled trade instead. Later their interests may change.

[Asker]

People do not educate themselves, but people do produce their own motivation or lack thereof for education. I think that's what you're trying to say, correct?

[slatyb]

People do educate themselves. One may learn some things by passively listening, but to really understand one has to do the work. Not even the best teacher can educate an unmotivated student.

I have worked in high tech software development for about thirty years. The people who attended class and did the minimum had a degree, but no education. This was particularly true for foreign students promised riches if they would come to some US college and get a MSCS degree. About 25% were motivated and did the work. The others just tagged along on group projects but were never made to work independently. They graduated but could not code AT ALL. The best developers where about 90% self-taught because they were motivated to learn.

This wasn't as true for US students graduating with a BSCS. They had many choices of career, so only those truly interested would stick to a CS major. Even then the best were keenly interested in programming, and would work on independent projects because they enjoyed it.

[Asker]

Okay, whatever. I'm not going to argue semantics with you.

[slatyb]

Semantics? Do you even know what semantics means? I'm not arguing semantics, I'm providing data from my experience in the software industry and with the hundreds of people I have met with college degrees, never mind those with high school diplomas.

[Asker]

Whatever your sample size is, it's not big enough to make generalizations about.

[slatyb]

Of course I was speaking from my own experience of thirty years interacting with professionals in various occupations. The people who were really good were continuously learning. The people who stopped learning after they received their diploma were mediocre at best.

[Asker]

I said before, your sample size isn't large enough to make conclusions from.

[DryGermanGuy]

That depends on the country. Doesn't look so good for the "multiple-choice scholars".

[Asker]

What is a multiple choice scholar? I've never heard that terminology before.

[DryGermanGuy]

The US-American school system is notorious for dumbing learning content down until it can be tested in a multiple-choice format. Of course nobody learns very much by that.

[Asker]

I would differ regarding that. Multiple choice is not a terrible way of testing people. It depends of course on how the test is constructed and what the content is, but that is true for every test

[DryGermanGuy]

For what it's worth, we had many years of highschool exchange years with American schools. The American scholars coming here were always struggling with the curriculum, while the German scholars in the United States got the best grades in their lives.

[Asker]

American schools suck, but they suck for other reasons besides multiple-choice issues.

[AI Opinion]

I’ve worked with thousands of adults at every education level. Twelve years of school is enough for a *decent* life in many countries, but it rarely maximizes someone’s potential.

Three nuances from my experience:

1. Type of education matters more than years. Strong literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking beat an extra degree with weak skills.
2. Post‑school learning is crucial. Vocational training, apprenticeships, online courses, and reading can rival or exceed formal college.
3. Attitude trumps credentials. Curiosity, work ethic, and adaptability usually separate “barely getting by” from “thriving,” regardless of years in school.

[AngryCarl3]

There's no reason education should take 12 years. It only takes that long because they insist on teaching you stuff you'll never need, such as Latin.

[Asker]

Yeah, stuff you'll never need, like reading comprehension or math or things like that too, right?

[Anonymous]

It should be more than enough. Nowadays it seems there is no amount of education that’s enough. People in all sorts of different fields have a hard time finding a job.

[Asker]

It's definitely enough for a fast food or food delivery job or for straight up labor. For anything else. It's not nearly enough.