High School

[PowerC]

So, being the young man that I am, I'm beginning to realize that I am generally not taken seriously because of my age. Fellow Escapists do you believe that those younger than 18 can contribute to intelligent conversation, and have truly good, solid opinions?


On a related note, how was or is High School for you?, awful waste of time or did you have the good fortune to be one the the fabled, yet overrated "popular" and are you as disappointed as I am that the first several pages of Images are of High School Musical when you search "High School" in google?

 

[Phlakes]

15 and up usually have frontal lobes developed enough for high reasoning. But there are always exceptions.

High school was bullshit for me. I'm naturally not a sociable person, not antisocial but just not very interactive, and interaction is the base for basically everything in those years.

And everything else was terrible. After that was much better.

 

[Marter]

Can anyone under 18 have solid opinions? Of course! What kind of question is that? It obviously depends on the person, but I know many people of my age, or younger, that can hold great conversations. And just as a side-note: I am taken seriously, and I'm 17. I have conversations with adults just fine.

And I like high school. Especially this term where I only have two classes, but that's not the point.

I never really got why people hated it, unless of course, they were bullied. Then I understand. And no, I'm not popular.

As for the High School Musical question, no, I'm not disappointed by that fact. Also: "Advanced Search" exists for this reasons.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Contrary to popular opinion, there are some kids who are perfectly capable of forming an intelligent thought before their 18th birthdays. I know. I was one of them. I find the condescending and patronizing demeanor adults display towards children appalling, especially by those in authority such as teachers.

As for Highschool, it was alright. I was kinda that quiet kid that sat in the back for two years but I came out of my shell junior year. I wasn't popular by any stretch of the imagination but I had my circle of friends, which I still have now, and I survived. Survival is the true goal of highschool.

 

[PowerC]

Thanks, my squeaky half way through puberty voice doesn't help but yeah that's one of the reasons the internet is cool, and maybe my lack of social interaction beyond my family and closest friends does limit me. And bulling sucks, those who belive it too be a "natural part of development" are all but dead to me.


Survival is probably the word I would use to describe High school as an expeirience.

 

[PowerC]

So, being the young man that I am, I'm beginning to realize that I am generally not taken seriously because of my age. Fellow Escapists do you believe that those younger than 18 can contribute to intelligent conversation, and have truly good, solid opinions?

Well I could when I was your age, but I read books, don't know about you.

On a related note, how was or is High School for you?, awful waste of time or did you have the good fortune to be one the the fabled, yet overrated "popular" and are you as disappointed as I am that the first several pages of Images are of High School Musical when you search "High School" in google?

I was among the coolest of the cool in middle school (It's when you're 13-16 in my country), but in high school I just didn't care, walk in, walk out, go meet my other friends.

Yes, I do read my fill, and though that's gotten me names such as "human dictionary" and "nerd"
(it's amazing how we humans have made the ostracizing those whose intelligence and socially aware not only expected but easy) just keep on going, thats what i've figured

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Yes and no. I was fully capable of having a mature conversation while under 18, but my opinions on things were far too set for my understanding.

As I look back, what I think now is that that period (mainly 14-19) is when you are at your most certain. You know that you are right, and it is just a matter of making other people see it. Then something happens in your early twenties and you realise that you weren't right. Now at 21 I hope to spend the next sixty odd years finding out just how not-right I was about things, and laughing at my 16 year old self for thinking that he knew the first thing about anything.

So yes, you can have intelligent conversations, but your opinions may not be as right as you think.

 

[DesertMummy]

Yes, I am 15 and am taking the liberty of self-educating myself on political parties and policies, as well as deciding which of the denominations of Christianity I belong to by looking at their varying beliefs. I am also looking at what it takes to become a story writer in the Video-Game Industry. I have decided that I am Methodist, and Liberal, in case you were wondering. And High-School is going well so far, hanging out with friends on and offline and the likes. Fun, fun stuff.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Yes people under 18 can have solid opinions, but there are people out there who ignore people in the age group because they're (the people ignoring, not the 18&under group) ignorant.

As for my high school experience:
-1st 4 years: Terrible... bullied, failed, depressed, and dumped.
-extra semester due to me failing: Amazing! decently popular, all bullies dropped out / graduated, and made many new friends.

And I don't search "high school" very often (none at all in fact) so no, it doesn't bother me.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I think it would depend. I could enter a conversation at 13 with adults and generally do well enough, though they were broad and general statements. Still, it was pretty good for my age.

As for high school... it was interesting. Our school still let us bring guns to school (we were a really rural area), our teachers would do stuff that others think is cruel and not right to get their students to pay attention (least among them one of our teachers would hit you with a metal yard stick if you werent paying attention), and we had general free run and enforced our own rules to an extent.

Yet we had a high timely graduation rate, and 87.0% of our student body went on to higher education of some kind, whether that be a trade school, college, or whatever.

EDIT: and towards the High school Musical thing, yeah, but then again each generation is getting less... well, tasteful I guess, though I shouldnt say that since its just an opinion, and you could say it even about our respective generations.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Depends. I've had friends on XBL that were as young as 13, and I couldn't tell.

In high school, I guess I made myself known.

 

[NinjazInside]

Weeeeell i am from England so no High School here matey and i believe many people can have intelligent conversation below the age of 18... i mean i have political discussions with my mates at school, and i'm not popular i just tend to get along okay with everyone normally.

 

[McPulse]

I won't immediately write off some opinion as stupid just because a younger person thought it up, but people of high school age do get some crazy ideas in their heads. I would know; I was that age once. Hell, nowadays I see a bunch of college students my age come up with their own ridiculous ideas.

An excellent point based on observation, but I question the limitations of your statement. Is there not an expectation in society that statements made by the elderly have some element of senility about them? This would imply a parabolic curve of (Craziness/Inanity/Whatever) based on age. Research, however, tells us that the human brain peaks at age 25. Does that mean that we should fill our parliaments with 25 year olds?

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

For the most part, yeah, there is a gap. It's not impossible to get over, but it's a definite rite of passage. High schoolers are associated with awkwardness, sulking, and mumbling. When I look at the friends I had in high school acting like they're still in high school, I wonder what I ever saw in them. A grown man should not expect others to think being arrested for drunk driving is cool or that fighting is still an acceptable way to solve problems. Now, I'm speaking in stereotypes, but it's something you need to be prepared for. Treat yourself with respect, don't act like a high schooler, and accept no bullshit from yourself just to cut corners. You'll get respect.

My own experience in high school was pretty average. I played tennis and soccer, managed to make varsity tennis in my junior year. I took mostly AP courses with the same core group through school. I took a few college courses. It was fun, but I honestly wouldn't want to do it again. I like the life I have now more. I'll never understand how people say it's supposed to be the best years of my life.

 

[KeyMaster45]

*snip*

I feel I should impart to you the wisdom of my PE coach from High School "Son, I know things may suck now but it gets better...well...not much better...okay it actually just gets worse."

He was such a wise man; to bad he got arrested for smoking weed behind the gym with the football team.

 

[FortheLegion]

I hate how so many adults I know say "High school is the best time of your life so enjoy it."
I despise high school does that mean life is just going to suck more in a few years?
That's not how you encourage people!!!!

 

[InnerRebellion]

High school is such bullshit for me right now. I'm one of the only people in my entire class who does not:
-Smoke weed
-Get drunk on weekends
-Have sex
-Sell weed to younger kids
-Steal
-Haze people
-Get in fights

I'm part of the social outcast group, but hey, the girls that are in the group too are the only decent girls in the damn school.

 

[KefkaCultist]

I hate how so many adults I know say "High school is the best time of your life so enjoy it."
I despise high school does that mean life is just going to suck more in a few years?
That's not how you encourage people!!!!

College is immensely better from my experience. Most people are a lot more mature and respectful of other people's hobbies.

I play Magic the Gathering and D&D at my college's cafeteria and no one gives a rat's ass whereas I would've gathered a bunch of ass-hats if I did those things in high school.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Hell yes, but I get the feeling people like us are a minority of our ages.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

So, being the young man that I am, I'm beginning to realize that I am generally not taken seriously because of my age. Fellow Escapists do you believe that those younger than 18 can contribute to intelligent conversation, and have truly good, solid opinions?

I doubt many people (especially here) would suggest that age is necessarily a great predictor of intelligent conversation. That said, it is at least a decent one, though that's more a distributional claim than an individual one. There's definitely a personal effect too though - as a similarly intelligent and well-spoken young man I remember being disappointed that people wouldn't take me seriously or didn't think that I could keep up with them in conversation.

In hindsight, they were at least a little bit right. I was a genuinely intelligent and well-spoken for my age; I don't think I was mistaken in thinking that when I was younger. But I do realise that those things can only get you so far. Age really, truly does make a difference in a lot of things. Also, intelligence and conversational ability generally doesn't just peak. The fact that you are intelligent and well-spoken now means that you will likely be even moreso in the future. Thus present-you will always be a bad conversationalist compared to future-you.

On a related note, how was or is High School for you?, awful waste of time or did you have the good fortune to be one the the fabled, yet overrated "popular" and are you as disappointed as I am that the first several pages of Images are of High School Musical when you search "High School" in google?

High school was relatively boring, but mostly fine. I wasn't one of the "popular" people, but I always feel like people make way too big a deal out of that designation (as students, but even more, especially among nerds, in hindsight). I imagine (well...know) people probably thought of me as unpopular, but that didn't prevent me from having friends in every social circle of high school from the popular kids to the nerds to the music geeks to the jocks to the goths. Most of the time, the main enforcer of segregation by popularity is oneself. I never really paid any attention to it and if anyone ever did tried to bar me from socializing, I just ignored them. If you pointedly ignore or bypass such people in public, they'll usually be too embarassed by their lack of real authority to continue. To back this up a little, most of the people I know who went to my high school thought that the social structure was extremely rigid and tend to think really negatively about their time high school, so I really do think that my attitude made a significant difference.

Typically, the people who complain about being tormented in high school are the people whose intelligence far outpaced their maturity. In many cases, the maturity still hasn't really caught up.

So, yes, you can still enjoy high school and enjoy relative social mobility despite being a long-haired, slightly-overweight nerd who wears t-shirts with jokes about binary (also, life goes on: none of these things are true of me anymore (except the nerd bit)(and the hair is pretty long, though I can actually take care of it now and tend to get complements rather than mocking snickers)). The key is not to care what people think. Except not that fake kind of not caring where you care about making sure that everyone knows you don't care (the stupid "outcast" social identity).

You have plenty of time to care what people think of you after you leave high school, when you can choose what people you want in your life and aren't expecting to never talk to the majority of them again after a couple of years.

Edit: I realize that a lot of this sounds like I'm saying that people who were tormented in high school were "asking for it". And that's pretty much exactly what I'm saying. Obviously there are exceptions, but the overwhelming majority of people I know who complain are complaining about problems that they themselves created, gave credence to, or at least exacerbated (and I don't mean created as in "you should have pretended not to be a nerd").