The human life is compromised on different developmental stages in the life cycle of a human being. Different activities characterize each stage with cyclical accuracy whereby almost every human being undergoes such activities. Basically, the human life starts with birth, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle life and old age. School age in most societies sets in at age 4-6 years at junior level and by the time one is an adolescent, high school is the level of education for that age group.
The adolescence stage of life is one of the most vibrant and active stages in life. The much activity experienced and also witnessed during childhood is mainly informed by the growth and developmental changes which are evident in that age. Deep emotions characterize adolescence something which greatly impacts on activities of an adolescent at high school. Therefore at high school a student mainly makes decisions not necessarily on the basis of rationality but on the basis of emotions.
Most make poor decisions and mess up their careers by having wild dreams, which are not realistic but are based on emotions. High school life is characterized by irresponsible decision-making, which in turn makes it very hard for high school students to have good financial management skills. Mostly teens in high school end up doing impulse buying as that is based on what their colleagues are going for. If a student at high school wishes to abide by the modern fashion trends such desire is rarely guided by imaginative thought but often by peer influence and unrealistic goal setting.
Therefore high school life is characterized by a great deal of emotional breakdowns especially from teenagers who do not know what is the best thing for them. Therefore lack of high school students’ ability to achieve financial discipline often results into many falling into financial crisis. High school life is also characterized by a lot of incidences and choices, which are pegged on personal responsibility. By the time one is in high school, they desire and enjoy a high degree of independence. This is especially so in boarding schools whereby the students live away from parents.
Therefore this calls for the ability of the students to make independent personal choices, which depend very much on one’s personality. Irresponsible decisions for high school students can see one get into drug abuse and therefore mess up their lives. Irresponsible decisions can also lead some into early pregnancies as well as involvement in crime. On the other hand those high school students who remain focused are able to lead self-fulfilling lives and in turn use the high degree of freedom American parents tend to give to the high school students to their advantage.
Compared to High School students, College level students are on aggregate more mature although this does not translate into better financial management skills or to more personal responsibility. In fact, there are some college students who get out of high school as disciplined students but once they get into college, things turn for the worse. However, the college presents a great chance and opportunity for focused students to shape their careers and future lives. At colleges, leadership skills, communication skills, life skills as well as academic skills are all taught (Gordon, 67).
College students’ class schedules in most cases are designed in a manner to allow students a great deal of multi-tasking in that schedules are usually flexible and pegged on the course one is taking in high school. This is hacking and most students have to do with a well-articulated lesson plan as well as course works. Therefore compared the college offers its students a good experience in terms of choice of study hours. In addition most colleges offer flexible programs such as part-time courses, on-line courses as well as the option to pursue distance learning.
At the college level, class work and homework is alot compared with high school, as college education tends to be learner-centered as opposed to high school whereby the teacher is usually in control of the class. High school emphasizes high school attendance with strict class roll calls and supervision, which means that there is a lot of pushing of students by their teachers. Therefore high schools have stringent demands of attendance than colleges. In colleges a minimum of attendance is set which if surpassed may lead to disqualification from the course.
Colleges are characterized by big and well-organized faculties and highly specialized staff members. This implies that for college students who remain well focused, they stand to gain alot from the expertise of the staff as well as from the highly specialized staff members. In high school the staffs are trained to multi-task and the level of specialization is considerably low. The level of peer influence in high school is much higher compared to that of colleges because at college level, most students are young adults and therefore mature enough to wade off peer pressure.
Conclusion Both college and high school stress highly on extra curricular with high schools making it mandatory for students to participate in extra curricular activities while in colleges co-curricular activities are based on career choice and personal interests. In addition, high schools control minor issues in students’ lives such as how girls and boys mingle, separate hostels for males and females as well as mandatory dining facilities in high schools.
In colleges students supplement their meals depending on the type of college. All in all, experiences are very varied and pegged on the type and nature of college with public colleges operating very differently from private colleges. However both colleges and high school administrations are bound by Federal Education Act as well as the applicable state legislations.
Works Cited
Page Gordon, V. Career advising: An academic advisor’s guide. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass. 2005.