High School

The more I think about it, the more High School strikes me as a bad idea.

A while back I saw something that went like this:

Q: “Why are novels set in totalitarian dystopias [e.g., Hunger Games or Divergent] so popular with High School students?”

A: “Because High School is a totalitarian dystopia, so they can relate.”

If someone put me in charge of all American High Schools, I’d let the kids get together for band and choir and athletics, but I’d have them do individualized, online courses for their academic subjects. And once they turned 16, I’d try to get them all paying internships so they could learn what it’s like to be economically productive. (If this worked out, I’d try to lower the age for internships to 14 or even 12.) If kids had some feeling of being useful, I doubt we’d see many school shootings.