Taking time off between high school and college, good idea, try a decade

The entire process of education that we use in America is flawed and in many ways. One of the strongest forces that ruin the minds of potential learners is burn-out. It is a state of mind where structure and discipline wear on the soul of a young mind and suddenly they stop caring if they advance their academic careers or not. A huge contributor to this process is the pace at which we rush towards the professional pursuits that captain our vessels of destiny. Straight out of 12 years of education, during a time when our vital young bodies are thriving with hormones and energy, it is commonly expected that kids rush of for four to eight more years of structured education. It’s nuts.

Here is an idea; how about after high school, people take a decade or so to actually live life while they can. There is plenty of time for more school and professional playtime later. As it is today, one is supposed to wait until the adult diaper years to spend a year in Tibet, or hike the Appalachian trail. In our senior years of life our minds end up as a loose leaf memory storage devices with little stimu­lation. Why not spend those times academically? The better we get at medicine the higher the average age of death rises. In America we can expect to live an average of 80 plus years, yet retirement happens for most between the ages of 60 and 70. So you get a decade at the end of things to stockcar race while using a colostomy bag. What Joy.

Instead, imagine what fun life would be if we used the decade of our twenties to drink, carouse, debauch, dance, indulge and experience as much as possible while we still have stamina and vitality on our sides.

This madness of expecting 19 year-old boys to be able to concentrate on anything besides dropping trou’ and mass consumption of intoxicants is an exercise in futility. Full grown adults make much better students once they have worn the distractions out of their system.

The trouble lies in the fact that so many that take a break never return to school. The fact is, the system isn’t designed for that. In high school there all kinds of helping hands pushing kids into college, after that the signs pointing out the right place to go and the right papers to file are less common. The problem lies in the system which was designed for a world that has advanced past the world it was created in.