Does senior year play an important key role in helping students transition emotionally to being on their own or should they be allowed to skip it and spend a year volunteering/starting college early?
Marc F. Bernstein, a County Superintendent, realized that there was a a large number of highly unscheduled high school seniors. He reported that since most of the seniors had already met their graduation requirement, the students, parents, and counselors decided to set up a program with late school arrivals. He said, in his county, the by the time the student is in tenth grade, all parents and students have met with a counselor to discuss an alternative for twelfth grade. He said the options that they give the students is to start full-time college early, take college classes on the school campus, work to earn money for college, volunteer, start interning, or continue on with high school. He was then asked what he does with the per-pupil state aid. He said that he makes sure the state aid flow is even with the student’s graduation (making sure that all of the schooling has been paid for), takes a share of the state aid for the school they graduated from, and then gives the other share of the state aid to the parent for the child’s college expenses.
My question for you is: Do you think students need the fourth year of high school to be emotionally ready for college/work life?