" High school is useless"
"I would never use this in real life"
"Americans suck at school"

The above quotes offer a more or less comprehensive view of the most common feedback I've received when asking the question: "Do you think you've benefitted from your high school education?" For both Americans and non-Americans alike, people seem to be stuck on the idea that the tertiary process of American education is little more than a farce. But as someone who had went through the supposedly failure of a machinery, I honestly think that my high school education helped me in terms of both character development and the acquisition of knowledge.

It is now fairly common to see people bashing American high school education on social media no matter where I scroll, and the general consensus is that the subject material offered and taught in high schools isn’t practical to everyday life, that if offered courses in accountancy and other potentially more practical programs to students, Americans wouldn’t be as lazy about their homework, etcetera. In a fair amount of developed countries such as Germany and Singapore, students begin training for their professions as early as when they begin middle school. Obviously, the Germans are doing well with the system that they have in place, but I honestly doubt that the parents of America would be able to accept their children training to some blue collared profession at the age of 13. After all, blue collar just isn’t good enough for many to accept. Parents would always aspire for their children to get into a “secure job”, something with desks, computers, or at least air conditioning.

That aside, the American system of tertiary education really hasn’t failed. Even if it doesn’t teach everyone how to file for taxes and register for mortgage or change a tire, it does exactly what it was meant to do: it allows Americans to become well-informed participants of civilization. The Quadratic Equation and specific dates that pertains to the War of 1812 may not seem important, but they really are. If you can’t even grasp simple algebra, how much more qualified would you be to understand tax policy? If you cannot learn from your past, how are you to be trusted to vote in a way that will better your future? Sure, liberal arts background makes you more or less a jack of all trades, but there is no law stating that you have to remain a master of none.

There is no limit to how many courses you are allowed to take other than the time that you are given. In Singapore, the rigidity of the course structure in high school (or as they call it, junior college) allows only two tracks of study: arts, or sciences. And that is already very liberal as far as choices are concerned. If you went into technical school instead of high school, you would learn about one subject (accountancy, biochemistry, media production, etcetera), and that subject will in all likelihood become your career. There is little to be said for general knowledge. In fact, I once encountered a girl who didn’t even know where the atomic bombs were dropped on in Japan.

In high school, you are given the opportunity to literally learn whatever you want, as long as you can attain the minimum standards set (and the minimum standards really aren’t high). The freedom to learn, more than anything, is a freedom that few Americans would understand unless they leave to study abroad. Americans with liberal arts backgrounds, whether tertiary or post-tertiary, are much better equipped to understand the world they live in.

And isn’t that why we learn? If education to you is merely a tool for your sustenance, then your education has failed you. Life skills are important, and it’s good to know how to change a tire. But those are skills you’re expected to learn on your own time. High school is supposed to be an enriching experience, and if you choose to spend that time procrastinating and screwing around, you have only yourself to blame when you end up with a completely useless high school diploma and no prospects for the future. The high school diploma is essentially a certification for you to begin exploring the world you are in, whether by learning more or by going out there to explore it.

Now stop whining, and get to work.