Oh high school. Personally, I’m glad the days of homecoming queens, lunch table hierarchy and nine classes a day are behind me. But according to the New York Magazine article, Why You Truly Never Leave High School, the memories of those days will have lasting effects on my career and the decisions I make in the future.
Will my high school identity come back to haunt me?
Our adolescent life is crucial in the development of our self-identity. Any cultural stimuli we are exposed to during that time make more of an impression. They either become a part of our self-concepts or we reject them. But these decisions are not so easy to make when trapped in a factory-made school day where popular kids rule and the girl who plays the cello (or has a tea part in the kids section of a book store) is seen as a loser. Both the regimented curriculum and the pressure to fit in prevent us from fully exploring our interests. “Our self image from those years is especially adhesive,” writes Senior. “So too are our preferences.” And the emotions we experience, such as embarrassment and shame stay with us long after we graduate.
Homeschooling has become a more popular option for parents. Some believe homeschooling is the answer to the creative development of their children. At home, they can learn through life and they are not forced work out their identity amid other soul-searching students. According to the article Homeschooling, City-Style, homeschooler’s in New York City learn American history by working with actors in Oklahoma. At Robofun kids work in pairs to build robots and learn computer programming. “One of the most popular programs among New York homeschooling families, and one that fulfills the city’s phys-ed requirement, is Wayfinders,” writes Lisa Miller, “a role-playing fantasy program in which kids run around Central Park in teams with large foam swords playing an epic version of capture the flag.” Now that sounds like fun.
Me in high school playing with chalk.
There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m still influenced by who I was in high school. Luckily, creativity did not escape my high school career, and my friends supported, if not encouraged doing things a little differently. If anything, I think high school may have had the opposite effect on me. No one’s stopping me from playing a childhood fantasy game in Central Park, or at least the Emerson accepted equivalent, Quidditch (I don’t play, yet). I can explore new parts of the city or go to a museum. My creative career has just begun.
Sara Wynkoop 