I vaguely remember the part of my life that did not revolve around school. I went to preschool for three years, and then started kindergarten when I was six. Most of my life has been spent "preparing" for the next stage.
In the years that focus on learning the foundations of grammar, speech, reading, and many other classes, this is absolutely justified. You have to learn the alphabet so that you can read, you have to learn basic math to succeed in the advanced classes. But I started to realize something that was wrong with this mindset come my eighth grade year.
There is nothing innately wrong with bettering your knowledge to get to the next class or to the next step. You have to take pre-algebra to get to algebra 1. Common sense. However, some people seem to use this as an excuse for being a difficult teacher - difficult to the point where it can paralyze students and stay with them through college.
I have heard too many people say that "this is going to prepare you for _____," and when I get to whatever "_____" is, it is absolutely nothing like that. Just because high school is supposed to be significantly harder than middle school, doesn't mean that you should scare us into fearing it by telling us we will never be able to makeup a test, that things will be graded a lot harder, and that no one will cut us any slack.
It is so frustrating to get to the next stage and only to realize that that stress was all for nothing. High school teachers, like middle school teachers, all structure their classes differently, so how can anyone just make a blanket statement about it? I do not know how many times I have heard a homework policy in high school justified by "well, when you get to college, professors won't accept anything late." If you want your homework policy to be a zero the next day, that's fine, but you don't have to justify it like that. I have yet to have a professor decline something that is handed in late, so it is obviously not the case for everyone.
My whole issue with this, is that it can scare kids away from wanting to further their education. People encourage kids to go to college, but then tell them how hard it is. Let people live in the now. Let them learn information so that they can pass their next test, not to get into college. Tell me to finish my homework so I can get a good grade, not because lateness won't be tolerated later in life.
Oh, and news flash, there has been so much extra credit since I got to college. So if anyone is telling you there's not, don't believe everything they say.
