Destructive Diploma’s—And What To Do About Them

If you cook, do you cook the same four recipes or do you branch out with new foods and flavors?
When you pick a movie, do you go for cinematic comfort food or do you want something edgy?
If you go to the doctor, do you want general proscriptions for wellness or a personalized evaluation?


These simple choices are a tiny slice of what it means to be an adult in America. We have such great personal liberty that many of us build routines and preferences to deal with the overwhelming number of options. We are Homo Sententia—people with an opinion.

Except in high school.

To hear most education reformers over the last decade, every student should leave high school prepared for college. Famous lists of high-performing high schools reference college prep curricula and assessments. Reformer pronouncements celebrate college readiness.

We tell students that high school should be about getting ready for college. Then we tell them how.

I respectfully propose we back off the one-future-fits-all approach to high school. Let's think together about what might be different if students exercised their innate preference to choose.

What if every student, upon entering high school, were to build an educational plan for the next four years? Some students would aim high—we already know their tribe. Some students would aim low. That isn't ideal, but if they fulfill their modest plan, that is certainly better than dropping out of somebody else's preferred version of your future.

A lot of students would make choices that we wouldn't make for them, but more of them would thrive than we like to admit.

Imagine a student finishing 8th grade with a basic foundation in verbal, written, and math literacy. That student would have enough communication skill to take advantage of further study, internships, technical training, vocational options, certification programs or working in the community as an apprentice or unskilled worker. This is precisely the model of education that gave us the greatest generation.

Under the current system, many students learn a lot in high school. Just as many stop learning at about the 8th grade. They may take more classes and hear more teaching, but most entry-level college professors can tell you that many students finish high school "successfully" with little more than 8th grade proficiency.

Now contrast that with a generation of literally self-directed learners. As an employer, would you rather hire someone who took initiative and designed a course of study and experience that prepared them for your open position? Or would you rather take a generalist who passively went along with the default curriculum because that's what the school said to do?

Given the choice, I'd prioritize initiative, internships, independent study and self-selected learning over Algebra II, Physics, British Lit or Philosophy. Those are all important and worthwhile subjects of study, but so are hundreds of other kinds of learning experiences that get squeezed out of the current decision process.

Let's restore humanity to our high school learners. Let's give them the right and responsibility to set a good plan and execute it well. The students who want to build a scholarly plan can adopt the current graduation standards and meet them with vigor. The students who are demoralized and defeated by living under the wrong expectations can find a new way. They can develop themselves and enter the community of adults as self-directed learners—prepared for a world of their own choosing and making.