Alright today I am going to tackle pre-college education, because what a waste of time that was. In all seriousness I have learned more in the past 18 weeks of college then I did in all of middle school, or even the last two years of High School (and if you subtract Ms Duffy from the picture, it gets extremely bleak). By the end of this college year, I will probably have equaled my entire post-secondary school knowledge. That is just ridiculous. Why can't high school be like that? Writing an essay a week is a good thing, hell it is probably the best thing for you. There are no reasons (other than cultural and a couple practical) for why all of a sudden, once I turn 18, I can learn at this pace. I was born to learn at this pace, I want faster. I am only going to have 6-10 more years of possible education, but 4-6 of those years will have to be a specialization in a certain topic. So in reality I am only going to have a couple of years of learning that will make me a well-rounded intellectual. Kiss my dream of being a "man of letters" goodbye. That is just a shame. It is even more ridiculous when I am mocked by the exploits of 19th and 20th European intellectuals who earned their PhD by 22 and knew Attic Greek and Latin by 12, hell I had not even tackled pre-algebra then. San Just, Sieyes, John Stuart Mill, Condorcet, von Humboldt, Robbespierre, and Karl Marx were changing the world in their twenties.

So why is this, what are the perks of postponing education? Well for one it may be a by product of public education. I never experienced what private school was like and it may very well have been what college is like now (though I highly doubt it). Certainly it is nice to have a childhood. Being carefree is always nice, but why can't the speed step up around 8th or 9th grade, by then we have all enjoyed a good 13-14 carefree years? Well the answer probably lies in the demands on already overburdened teachers. Making lesson plans for one class five times a week is extremely difficult. But then multiply that by 5-6 classes. Then add in grading papers, which I will admit, is as tedious as it gets. College professors certainly benefit from TA's who grade for them. Also professors have the perk of only meeting two to three times a week, for a much shorter period of the year.

But why can't we offer high school teachers and students the same thing? To this I have no answer, but maybe I should go start a middle school and high school. Someday, I will become a high school teacher and go nuts on my students. I will have an essay due every other week and 100+ pages of reading per class. I like it. That would make some learned individuals.

-Mr. Alec