Is all the work in high school worth it?

xiggi
Wed, 28 Aug 2013 14:48:54 +0000

“Is all the work in high school worth it?”

No.



There is a lot of truth in Mini’s answer, although I believe that qualifying his (or her) cryptic answer might be yield a few surprises.

My take is that “all” the work in high school is NOT worth doing it. Actually, a lot of the work that presents itself is not worth spending anytime on it. Example? The panoply of silly clubs plenty of students join or, even worse, start. And especially in the last two years. Depending on the sports, some high school sports are not worth the time and effort, if (and that is a big if) the same sport is played at a higher level outside the school. Example of this would be soccer and baseball in Texas. Participation in varsity teams does not add much to the “select” soccer scene in terms of recruiting. Obviously, this is different in other regions and other sports.

Regarding the work, one has to learn to be selective, and avoid huge time sinks. Certain classes do NOT reward spending a lot of time, and there is little difference between a 99 and a 95. The key is also to develop a great organization. For instance, athletes do usually well in balancing their activities as they have learned to follow strict timeslots, and avoid wasting time.

And, most importantly, many err in spending too much time on perfecting the high school pedigree and not enough on the standardized tests such as the PSAT and SAT. A perfect GPA will never undo the negative impact of a low SAT or ACT, safe and except in states that use a HS rank as the sole yardstick for admissions (such as Texas.)