Get Set! Get Ready! Go to College!

By Tim Voigt and Thomas Jonesmith

College is a great decision for the graduating high school student.  It is something that has to be understood and considered thoughtfully.  Here in this book, we will discuss the nature of college, the condition of the high school student, and the realities he must face to enter and use college.  It is intended for the reader who wants to go to college, to maximize his chances of exploiting college thoughtfully and responsibly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tim Voigt
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215405994

Book preview

To students preparing to enter college.

Epigraph:

'In ancient times, various societies would establish institutes to education that would improve on high school.  Here students would gain an education in subjects and arcane topics a lower school would not teach.  Here they would refine themselves, learn about a wider world, and gain skills useful for later life.  Here people would gain accreditation useful for entering careers requiring highly skilled persons.  Such schools would gain the name of a college or university (where the universe is taught).  Here for four years they can experience a world of wonders, activities, possibilities, and the like that can shape a lifetime.  Here kids transform into adults, gaining awareness for an adult world, gaining the skills to succeed as adults as well.'  -talk on college applications

'Education can last a lifetime, it is a journey of yourself, your mind, and your being.  It goes with you throughout your journey through life.'  -talk on college

'The college is meant to give the student a chance to be more than what he is now.  It is a place where he can learn and become someone sheltered from the world.  It is a place to refine himself, to open his mind, and to give him a chance to succeed in an adult world.'    -talk on college

Dedication:

Colleges have been around for centuries beginning in ages like Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.  They are institutes of higher education to teach arcane skills, to give chances, and to let a student find his calling in life.  It would appear in history and be refined as well.  Colleges would go on to become elaborate institutions with professors, students, subjects, clubs, and so much more.  Leaders of society emerge from colleges and its experience shapes many for a lifetime.

When age 18 comes around, kids will become adults and are forced to enter into an adult world.  Here they have to choose where to go and what to become.  For many they will enter into lives like the military, work, starting a family, traveling, and so much else.  For some however they will embark on another path that of higher education.  Here the student must choose where he is to go and what he is to learn.  The decision he makes will be life changing and altogether novel as he has never known it before.  Here in this  book, we will examine the college experience more closely, exploring it, and seeing what can be done with it.  For many students, college is a bewildering new reality they don't understand and thus do not know how to exploit.  They are faced with it and are nevertheless plunged into it as well.  Here we will condense the college experience down to something more manageable and understandable.  Hopefully this book will inform the prospective college student how to use college more wisely and better than if he didn't know it all.  Here we will explain the college experience more thoughtfully so the college student can make better decisions in how to use his college experience.

In this book, we will explore the college experience more closely.  We will discuss what can be done with it, where a person can go with it, and how it can impact life for the better.  It is overall a wonderful blessing, a privilege many get, and whose influence shapes a lifetime.  Here we will explore discussion on what college is about and why it was made at all.

Overall this book is dedicated to students who go off to college.  It is for them in their journey to get the most out of this epical, life-changing experience.

This book began with going to college, studying colleges, and trying to see what can be done with this epic institution of society.  It is a reflection of over 30 years experience with colleges, going to them, working in them, and trying to gain the most out of them.  As with any work of this magnitude, mistakes are sure to enter in.  Please forgive any omissions and mistakes that are found.  Overall this book is meant as a guide to college, how to use it, and how to get the most out of college itself.  I hope you find it useful and thought provoking, helping you the college student make better decisions with your college experience.  Over all this book is a guide to help students cope with college and use it to bless their lives.  For this I hope it helps you the college student in anyway it can.  Thank you for reading and best wishes to your journey through college.  Please share this book with family, friends, and indeed anyone considering going to college.

Tim Voigt/Thomas Jonesmith

English Instructor

2022

'After high school, kids are bewildered by being adult, the world, and themselves.  They don't know what to do, where to go, and who to be.  They need an answer, the rest of their life depends on finding that answer.'            -talk on higher education

'College is fundamentally an extension of high school.  It blends the elements of high school but in an adult setting.  It is here the high school kid must face the adult world yet in some way he can maintain himself as the high school kid he was not so long ago.'    -talk on college

Forward:  College (University)

In ancient times, peoples would discover abilities, arts, and activities of all sorts.  They would learn to make fire, make clothes, speak a language, build a hut, hunt animals, conceive shapes, count, and so much more.  Out of this would come the beginnings of subjects to be.  Counting would lead to the idea of  numbers and inspire mathematics.  Conceiving forms would inspire geometry.  Speaking a language would inspire linguistics.  Building a hut would inspire engineering, and so much else.  As people advanced out of the Stone Age, they would become civilizations with many abilities now quietly evolving into academic subjects.

In past ages, people would conceive a place where teachers could instruct students in abilities and activities.  This would inspire the creation of the first schools.  Schools would appear here and there through history staffed with teachers and having students.  It could manifest as anything like a cave meeting, a circle about a fire, a camp, a temple to learning, a monastery for learning and prayer, and so much else.  Out of this would come the creation of schools called elementary, junior high (middle), and high school.  In time 'higher' schools would evolve and they would inspire the creation of the first colleges.

Civilizations of all kinds would appear in the world.  There would manifest epic societies like:

-ancient Egypt -Sumer -Babylon -ancient Greece -Rome -China -India -Tibet -the Mongol Empire -the Aztec Empire -the Inca Empire -the Vikings

-Goths -Vandals -Carthage -Spain -the Ottoman Empire -Byzantium -the Holy Roman Empire -Persia -Akkad -Assyria, and many others.

Each society would found schools in some way to teach youth and pass on knowledge of abilities and activities.  Schools of each era would manifest in ways according to the nature of the age for which it is manifesting.

Out of this would come the creation of colleges.  They would become labyrinthine things teaching arts, music, sciences, religion, philosophy, language, and skills.  They would evolve into epic constructions of administrators, classrooms, professors, and facilities.  Students would come from around and enter colleges, getting trained in some subject and then turning to make a career in whatever they have learned.

Colleges would imprint on societies like European nations, Arab nations, and elsewhere.  They would blend religion with academics to make for some kind of monastic community as well as school.  They would manifest as epic places like the Library of Alexandria, Lyceum, institutes, and so much more.  In time colleges would be used to educate royalty, nobility, upper class, clerics, and so much more.  They would become part of communities, shaping culture, and manifesting as domains of peace and civilization.

In the ancient world there was an epic institution founded in Alexandria, Egypt.  It was an institute to learning, academics, and the general celebration of knowledge in an age where superstition was religion.  Known as the Library of Alexandria it was a forerunner to the modern college.  It existed in an age at the height of ages like classical Greece and ancient Egypt.  It would see the collection of scrolls of learning, now mostly lost.  It would see epic thinkers work for it all gathered together in some kind of monastery of learning.  It would flourish for ages shaping the cultures of its age.  Tragically this institution would get destroyed and its act of destruction would go down in history as one of the great crimes of history.  Despite this its institution would imprint on civilizations after it trying to imitate and to celebrate its curious glory that it once was.  Later ages would attempt to mimic its institution in founding colleges and establishing national libraries.  In modern Egypt, an effort has been made to found a university that today curiously calls itself the new Library of Alexandria.  Other kinds of institution through history that would gain similar reputations are:

-The Library of Congress (USA) -national libraries -science institutes -the Bodleian Library -Cambridge University -Oxford University -Lyceum

-The House of Wisdom (Baghdad, Iraq) -museums -Ivy League colleges -institutes of technology, and many more.

Colleges would commission a kind of teacher called the professor.  He 'professes' to be a master of an academic subject as a teacher and researcher.  He also works in other ways as an advisor, mentor, officer of the college, expert on his subject, textbook writer, researcher, and commentator on academia.  He is an all around go to guy for teaching, advising, and running an academic department.  His presence makes for the college as students look to him as a master.

A college would grow into a labyrinthine reality.  It has halls, classes, departments, facilities, possessions, parks, libraries, and so much more.  It is overseen by professional staff all answerable to a head master, the chancellor.  It can exist as a private institution or be sanctioned by a state.  It can be a religious institution or something else.  Here the student comes, pays his fees, and proceeds to an education in whatever he chooses.  A college can manifest as anything, becoming large or small, great or tiny.  It all depends on the reality that creates a college.

An academic subject can be anything.  It can manifest as art, science, music, philosophy, sport, game, medicine, literature or what.  Specialists arise to profess what that may be and to champion it to students.  Academic subjects would begin in ancient times and evolve with ages.  They would grow labyrinthine and complex being passed down through ages.  In any age, a college professes this and teaches it to the next generation and so on.

Colleges would go on to be epic institutions of state.  They were born in primitive times because there was a need for a school.  It would change and evolve, becoming the epic thing it is.  It is so born because of Man's want for civilization and advancement.  It is found wherever in the world manifesting in any way.  It is here to teach youth to become adults, to convey skills, and open doors for a better future for self.  This is why it was founded, why it is here, and why people send their kids off to college yet again for another year.

'The college is a great privilege and great achievement of civilization.  It is here that a civilization asserts itself, teaches itself, and also finds renewal.  It is here kids learn of a wider world, opening their minds, absorbing a greater world into themselves.'    -talk on education

'College is unfortunately not a privilege everyone can have.  It takes good grades, money, effort, and hope to achieve it.  Getting through it is not easy and not all will succeed.  But for those who gain it, it can give a chance for a successful life.'      -talk on college

Preface:  Going to College

High school is an experience that lasts four years.  Students will study hard, join clubs, learn a lot, and then suddenly it is over.  They will get a diploma, commendations, and recommendations as they leave its domain.  Now they are adults having to get used to an adult world.  No longer can they rely on parents anymore, they now have to fend for themselves.  They need to find a direction, find a path, and make their way.  Where do they go from here?

For many they don't know where to go, what to do, and who to be.  Paths many kids follow include work, the military, travel, staying at home for some time more, and also higher education.  For many they will go on to higher education.  This can mean anything like a tech college, a specialty school, and even college.  They decide they will enroll, decide on a major, and for a few years study gaining a degree.  It is a path for many and one that gives the most likely chance to succeed.

In order to get into college, the student should have all these things:

-high grades (GPA over 2.5) -money (lots of it) -recommendations -volunteering experience -connections -drive and determination -a will to succeed -a dream of who you want to be -extracurricular experience (clubs, sports, games) -good English skills and language skills -good math skills -a love of learning -friends, and more.

The student will have to fill out a college application, many of them, mail them, and await results.  His applications will be judged by admission committees.  If the student is found pleasant, he can be accepted and also he can be rejected.  For colleges that reject him, he moves on to another.  For the ones that accept him, he can enter in, go to class, and begin his new life as a college student.  If he is rejected from all, he can then turn to tech colleges and other schools.

The student will move out of his house and go to college.  He will move into a dorm, take a room, perhaps get a roommate, and from there his college begins.  He has four years to be here and what does he do?  He will enter into a routine of activities like:

-go to class -eat in food service -study -socialize -join clubs -make new friends -watch TV -sleep -wash clothes -take a bath -walk, talk, and laugh -work a job -take exams -take tests -attend functions -play games -visit and join goups -do art -listen to music -go shopping -visit the bookstore, and do other things.

The routine of this lasts four years.  During the summer he may live back at home or work in a place like a resort, camp, or elsewhere.  In the fall, he goes back to college and does it all over again.  He will move from year to year, gain credits, take classes, and absorb what this is.  If he likes it he makes it a life.  He can also reject it and turn to other things.

A credit is a artificial value of what a class is worth.  It is thought the tougher the course, the more credits it should be 'worth'.  Its thought a student has gained about 130 credits in classes and experiences over four years of college to graduate.  At the end he is awarded a 'degree' usually called a 'bachelor's' which says he has struggled, strived, and achieved to get this commendation.  He can then use his degree for adult living, opportunities, and much more.

The student will attend for four years.  His first year is called a freshman.  Here he takes intro classes and decides on a major and minor.  A major is an emphasis of a subject he will learn.  A minor is a support emphasis usually lasting two years.  His second year is called a sophomore.  Here he is more advanced and takes higher classes, its more challenging and he will succeed.  The third year is called a junior.  He is closer to graduation, he has racked up credits.  In the final year, he is a senior.  He will graduate, take a degree, complete all degree requirements.  He is done, he moves on.

The student will take a mentor who is a professor.  He will sponsor him, acting as a guide for what he is to study.  He will meet teachers, study under them and perhaps befriend them as well.  Teachers will influence him greatly.  He will use them for recommendations, job contacts, applying for internships and more.  They form his memories of this time and their influence shapes his life.

Colleges are filled with groups like music, sports, gamers, artists, students, and more.  There are a bewildering amount of groups into interests and issues like:

-teaching English -gaming -religion -chess -foreigners -music -art -soccer -football -baseball -tennis -hiking -outdoors -nursing -cooking -dating -languages

-culture -film and TV -radio -socializing -newspapers -prom -homecoming -student government -leadership -volunteering, and so much else.  Students will experiment with clubs, join a few of them, and absorb them of their influences perhaps making a living out of it.  They can be fun to join, to open doors, and to gain skills useful for later life.  They enhance a college education and the student is encouraged to sample the many clubs on campus.

College will only last four years.  It is an immense privilege to have one.  It allows students to gain experience, to be someone else, and to go where they would not otherwise go.  It shapes life and makes for a better life.  Not all can have it, but it will influence many and make for a better life.

Unfortunately college is a costly thing.  It takes money to go to it.  People of disadvantaged backgrounds struggle for college and this is tragic for many students.  Despite this many students find a way to pay for college by means like:

-gifts -endowments -lottery -donation -savings -working summer jobs -having rich parents bequest it -inheritance -scholarships -loans -fundraisers, etc.  How a person comes by their money can be anything.  However one has to have this money in order to pay for it.  Many times a student juggles work with study and this can lead to poor performance.  Options here include work-study which is a way to juggle work and study.  Another way is to approach a financial aid office and hope one can get a grant or scholarship of some kind.  Another means is to take loans.  This can prove tragic in many ways.  Taking a loan means the student needs to work a job after college to pay it back plus interest.  For many this can enslave a student to work for years just trying to pay back the loan.  If they go to an expensive college, a loan debt can be enormous and it can tax a student greatly.  How this gets resolved is anything.  For the most part students should avoid loans, it should only be a last resort if nothing works out at all.

College is not for everyone.  It can prove too hard, too bewildering, and it entails problems like outcasting, loss, confusion, and problems.  Students can get seduced to drugs and crime, problems that can lead to suspension, expulsion, criminal records, and worse.  For many college will not work out and they will tragically flunk out.  They will not learn, pass classes, and in time they fail.  For this they can drop out and they have to go elsewhere for a path in life.  Alternative paths one can follow include going into the military, working, living with parents, traveling, going to tech school, and more.  Life has many choices and the student needs to find a path to avoid tragic destinies if college does not work out.

For those who fail or cannot go to college.  They can fall to lives of drugs, crime, homelessness, outcasting, dereliction, alcoholism, and eventual suicide.  These fates consume many kids when high school is over.  They don't know where to go and fall in with the wrong crowds.  It can consume them, take them down, and even destroy them.  For those who enter such fates, college could have saved them and hopefully they could escape destinies like this after all.

College can do so much for people.  It can open doors, give opportunities, allows chances to meet friends, expands your horizons, and opens your mind to a wider world.  It is a chance to learn something else, to become someone new, and to live a life escaping drudgery and horrid fates.  In all it is a priceless opportunity to escape a bad life and bad fates.  It must seized of its chances, exploited to the limit, and be absorbed of all it can give.  Kids do not understand the lives they are living and they need to understand where they can go and be.  College is a chance for better things, new adventures, and a better life.  It is founded by societies, consecrated, and made an institution for youth to find themselves as adults.  It needs to be understood, exploited, and used for all that it can give, to bless life, to make for a better destiny.

What comes after college?  It could be anything.  They can go to graduate school, travel, work, start a family, enter a career, take time off, or what.  Choices are many and life can go anywhere.  They should think about life, find a good path, avoid horrid destinies, and enjoy what life has to offer.  College offers hope, a path, chances, and more to make for a better life and to escape horrid destinies.

In this book, we will review the college journey, the plight of the high school student, where he goes and what becomes of him.  We will explore why he chooses college, what to do with it, and how to exploit hopefully making a life he wants to live.

'The student is on a journey.  He walks, talks, eats, sleep, lives, and moves.  He is an organism, a thing of life, born, happening, and becoming.  He does not know where to go.  He only knows he is going, going somewhere, wherever that may be.'        -talk on life

'College can give so much.  It needs to be understood, absorbed, and used to its zenith of all it can give.  It should not be considered a birthright as it is not.  It is a chance to become something more, to become successful, and to realize a better life.'        -talk on college

Introduction:  Higher Education

For most of human history, people would generally be illiterate.  Education overall was restricted for a very few like elite, royalty, the rich, clergy, and the like.  It is not something most could have and for which most would never know.  Despite this societies would establish an institution to educate and this is called the school.  It would be an organization generally consisting of a building, teachers, students, and instruction of various learnings.  Overall schools would be largely primitive things but in time they would go on to become highly complicated institutions.  School would go on to be a privilege not all in society could have, but in time as societies advanced, the opportunities for schools would also be expanded to many people after all.  Schools would diversify into all manner of institution ranging from high schools to technical colleges.  Now they are so elaborate it takes professional staff to run such an operation full time.

In past ages, various societies would invent and establish kinds of school.  They were meant to teach skills, to prepare young adults, and to educate on arcane matters after primary and high school ended.  These schools would teach all manner of subject about the universe and thus would gain the name of 'university'.  Many would be established around the world and some would gain eminence as premier centers of learning.  In today's age, many colleges would go on to be famed worldwide like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, and national universities.

Many ages would exist in the ancient world that would attempt to found schools and institutes.  Many would become institutes to train clergy, royalty, nobility, the rich, and the elite.  Education was not for everyone and for this it was held as an elite standard for a lucky few.  Despite this many ages like Rome, China, India, and more would establish institutes of learning that were in some sense a forerunner to the modern college.  Many would gain fame in history like:

-the Library of Alexandria -the Lyceum -academies of the Greek philosophers -religious monasteries -the House of Wisdom, and many others.

In the Middle Ages, Europe was lost to darkness, barbarity, and other ills.  The church was an all powerful presence shaping its tragic world.  Here in church monasteries monks would be active into learning.  They would engage in arts, explore science, write, read, chant, pray, and so on.  They would teach these subjects to novice monks who in turn would teach it to others.  Here midieval peoples found some semblance of civilization, studying, living, praying, and finding religion.  Here in monasteries the modern college would have its beginning.  It would start as a monastic community and evolve from there.

In other times, schools would be founded to advance beyond high school.  Here the student would learn sciences, art, humanities, sports, and more.  Pursuit of these subjects would shape students into later adopting them for a lifetime, making them a profession.  A college would improve and expand on high school making it 'higher' of learning.  Colleges in time would be established for religion, science, art, and other domains.  It is here students can get refined understanding needed to make for a professional life.

In time, many kinds of college would be founded.  Some would teach a religion, others teaching, yet others in a skill.  Some would be identified with a nation, philosophy, faith, tribe, or movement.  They would manifest in many different ways, each trying to teach in something, advancing students, preparing students fo a life after school.  It was founded for the good of students, for the advancement of society, to cultivate civilization, and to improve lives.

Scholastics overall refers to movements like art, science, humanities, philosophy, religion, skills, and more.  Places for its study are called 'schools'.  Schools manifest as anything like grade, middle, high, vocational, colleges, religious, military, and tribal kinds.  It will commission administrators, teachers, students, graders, security, coaches, counselors, and more for the benefit of students.  Here students are introduced to subjects, there to learn and absorb.

Universities would go on to be complicated institutions.  They host wings like administration, human resources, dorms, academic departments, arena, stadium, libraries, computer centers, laboratories, and more.  They are staffed by professors, professionals versed in a subject and they are there to teach students.  They engage in all manner of activity like instruction, research, jobs, sports, and so much more.  They are established in many states and cities, often shaping the economic life of places.  They are institutions of society meant for the uplift of society.

Colleges would grow labyrinthine.  They are an institution of dorms, halls, centers, plants, institutes, and other places.  A college would sanction sports teams, research in sciences, promote the arts, celebrate life, and much more.  It would grow bewildering in student groups, issues, politics, dorms, problems, classes, and dramas.  It would become a complicated organism of activity, energy, and vigor, living life, becoming something.

Students would grow up and leave their homes behind.  Parents would send them and evict them from the 'nest' (their home).  They would find a direction in higher education turning to college.  Here they would apply, get accepted, and enter into campus.  They would find housing in dorms and take classes.  They would either absorb or reject the experience.  They can either succeed or fail with it as well.  If they find it too tough they can drop out.  If they want to make a better adult life, they need to succeed with it.  It is here that they find their life, destiny, and path to follow in later life.

The university would be overseen by officers called chancellors, provosts, deans, and the like.  They usually begin as professors turned administrators.  Their job is to guide the college, to establish academic standards, to run affairs, to decide issues, and handle the operations of a campus.  They serve as elite bosses to the whole operation, shaping it, running it all.  They overall answer to authorities like a board of regents, a panel that runs a college system, a president, a state governor, and more.  Colleges employ these authorities to oversee the college, its finances, operations, and more.  This is how a college gets its guidance.

Colleges would employ professionals called professors.  They act as mentors, teachers, advisors, and role models to the students.  They profess a subject, teach it, research it, and handle it for the students.  They serve as the rank and file of teachers.  They will have offices, do research, make their presence felt, and perhaps mentor graduate students.  They serve as intermediaries between students and administrators.

On campus all manner of thing can happen.  There can be student events, classes, seminars, job fairs, sports events, exhibitions, club meetings, and more.  It is alive with life, drama, energy, and vitality.  Students absorb its life, getting involved with it, making it apart of them, trying to find some way with it.  A campus is alive with clubs, classes, outings, and so much more.  Here the student can find a richer life than what he would otherwise know, exploring life for himself.

Campuses teach all manner of subject.  It can teach languages, art, sciences, business, music, and so much more.  A student can explore anything, follow any path, and become anything.  He can get involved in almost anything.  He may major in some subject and make it his life.  He absorbs it all and takes away from it all this place can give.  For many people the best years of life are there time in college.

In this book, we will explore the phenomena of what a college is and learn to understand it better.

'A college is in some way a blend of a monastery, a high school, and the real world.  Here the student is cloistered studying some subject, but he is also experiencing a new version of high school, experiencing the real world without its reality as well.'      -talk on college

'College is something in a better world all could have.  However the real world is just too stricken with ills like rich and poor, upper and lower class, good vs evil, and more.  For most failure will be destiny while a few can succeed.'          -talk on higher education

Introductory comments:

For many young people, high school will finish and then they must get on with adult life.  They will be forced out of their home and have to endure adult life.  For this they must find a direction, become someone, and go somewhere.  They can choose life paths like the military, work, travel, and also going to college.  For people who have good grades, money, drive, support, and youth, college is a desirable path to go.  For four years it can shape life, give chances, introduce self to new experiences, and much more.  It is an opportunity that will consume many and become something of the 'natural next step' for life itself.

—-Mission of this book.

This book's goal is to inform on what a college is, how to use it, what to get out of it, and more.  It begins with a high school student who graduates and has to begin a new chapter in life.  He is graduated, evicted out of his home, and he has to start a new life.  In all this book's goal is to do this:

-Discuss the nature of the high school student, his plight and predicament.

-Discuss paths for him after high school.

-Inform on the perils he can face during and after high school.

-Discussing the nature of college.

-Discuss subjects and skills he may learn and explore.

-Explore the many student clubs of a campus.

-Discussing the nature of other kinds of higher education.

-Discussing paths he can follow in life after college.

Overall this book is about discussing a high school student's life, what he is going to do, where he is going, and what to make of college after all.  The high school student has to understand his life, who he is, what he is, and to gain a vision of what kind of life he may live.  This book is intended to discuss his life, to show him a path, to inform on college, and to help him in his journey wherever he may go, whatever he may become.

'To understand a life, you must understand a life's journey.' -talk on life

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In this book, we will explore the college experience more closely.  We begin with discussion on the graduating high school student.

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Part 1:  The Situation of the High School Student

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'High school is just that, it is higher than middle and grade school.  It anticipates college and is a forerunner to it.  Here the student gets his taste of what higher education is like, deciding if he pursues it, deciding if it will shape his destiny after all.'    -talk on life

Chapter 1:  The Life of the High School Student

In this chapter, we will review essays on the life of the high school student.  We will discuss where he comes from, what he does, and where he might go.  He may or may not go to college.  But if he does, his journey starts here anticipating college, perhaps deciding it as well.  We begin where all journeys need to begin if a person goes to college, it starts with a kid growing up going to high school.  We start with essays on high school.

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———-High School

From the ages of 14 to 18, young people will go to a kind of school called 'high school'.  Here they will take classes, gain credit, join clubs, be into sports, and live large with other kids.  They will study Earth science, math, geometry, reading, writing, art, science, and so much more.  It generally informs on a lot, but seems generally useless for many.  They may turn to other things like machine shop, playing video games, going into sports, hanging out, and the like.  They really don't know what to do, why they do it.  However their parents told them to go, they obeyed, and if they didn't they would get in trouble with truant officers and police.  So for these years, they go to high school, study, take classes, and by some miracle they graduate it.  It proved to be an epic struggle, something kind of fun, and an adventure they had to undertake when grade school and middle school itself ended.

High school can be anything for anyone.  In rich and upper class communities, a high school is a community treasure and asset.  Parents and teachers combine and unite to take care of the students and the high school.  Administrators, school board, and parents all work to help the student succeed, coaching him, making him feel 'special' and he should succeed for the good and honor of his family, friends, community, school, and himself.  With this support, emotions are buoyed and students feel they should succeed.  In a climate like this hopefully they will.

High schools from poor and lower class communities suffer.  Here students are crammed into rooms for classes.  Teachers don't care and it seems families don't either.  Students come from homes stricken with ills like gangs, violence, poverty, despair, indolence, and alcoholism.  It creates an environment conducive to failure, morally eroding, and stricken with crime.  Students want a way out and can't find it.  They may runaway, turn to crime, descend into drugs and gangs, and worse.  Life seems to go nothing but wrong.  Administrators hate their schools and school boards seem largely indifferent.  Too many communities have these high schools.  Here lives goes down, it fails and the student fails.  Families wish it weren't this way, but they can't fight it even though they try.  Situations like this take down too many and it doesn't seem to end.

Overall a high school is an immense reality of:

-teachers -principals and administrators -staff -classes -lockers -sports -arts -sciences -labs -clubs -extracurricular activities -teams -logos -speeches -events -holidays -libraries -rooms -walkways -groups -social standards -sexes -youth groups -buses -facilities -the school board -community, and more.

It is bewildering, overwhelming, and perhaps something too much for anyone.  It is an institution found in many cities and towns.  It is there to train youth, to educate, and to prepare the next age of adults.  It is established, ordained, consecrated, and instituted for the good of kids, for the good of the community.

—Home schooling.  This is an activity of parents keeping their kids out of a high school and instead educating them at home.  It has its fortune in that parents and student form a bond where both educate themselves in the world.  But it suffers from problems like missing out on high school, kids being deprived of association with kids of their age, and the like.  It is tolerated in school districts where it happens, but it is not often really.

—Gifted and Talented.  This refers to students who seem to have greater aptitude with academic subjects than others.  They are entered into classes where they are 'accelerated' of learning being instructed in coursework at a greater intensity than other students.  It is a controversial program of schools usually based on test scores when so done.

—Accelerated courses.  There are instances where students seem so advanced that they learn courses faster than most.  They can be entered into classes and graduate at a faster pace.  Instances have happened where students even complete college courses and degrees by the time of their 18th birthday.

—Driver education.  For many high school students they will take a course to handle a car, learning to drive.  It will be overseen by a master driver and he drives a car about a town learning signs, signals, parking, speed limit, car respect, and lawful handling of a car.  It can lead to accidents like crashes and the like.  But if the student passes, he can go on to gain a driver's license.  He can also gain license for motorcycles, bicycle, moped, and other craft.  Students need to learn caution like never drinking, texting, speeding, using drugs, driving without seatbelt, or hazardly driving.  Too many die for this and this ends too many lives.  Cars need to be respected completely so these trends do not happen.

—Dating.  When kids are young, they don't care about sex.  As they grow up suddenly it seems sex becomes something.  Boys notice girls and girls notice boys.  Out of this comes relationships, sex, coupling, and as adults later marriage.  Its issue affects one and all, deciding so many lives leading to so much in return.  Dating can lead  to proms and homecoming, they couple, and it can go on to romance.  The next generation of families comes from this.  It is an issue that will haunt so many and shape so much.  Here the next generation becomes adults, but there are dangers like date rape, incest, sexual assaut, and worse.  Dating has to be handled responsibly or so much can go wrong.  Young lives can go anywhere and become anything with this issue.

—Limits.  Students in this age group have limits imposed on them.  They cannot drink, vote, get married, and other adult things.  But in time as they age, they will be allowed to do these things.

-Preparatory academy/Charter school/Montessori school.  These are kinds of school that prepare kids for life in high school and after.  Here they learn life skills, art, science, social skills, and the like.  It generally is a forerunner to college later on.

—Junior Achievement.  This refers to a kind of club usually not affiliated with a school found in many communities.  Here business professionals run a club for youth to experience the business world.  Kids may take to 'job shadowing' watching what a professional does in his job and imitating it, may work on a business of some kind, may learn business skills, and more.  It is meant to give skills in business to kids who may use in later life in adult jobs.

-Youth groups.  Kids may be entered into youth groups.  Here they associate with youth of their age group for fun, play, science, sports, and learning.  Kids can join all manner of youth group to experience a wider world during high school, but before college.  Groups he may join include:

-scouting -brigade -Bible study -church choir -youth business -Little League baseball -football -youth coaches -police auxiliary -confirmation in faith

-dog walkers -Jaycees -accelerated courses -youth hockey -city volunteers -cleanup crew -batboy groups -camps -youth soccer, and much more.

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'Age 18 is the boundary between kid and adult.  Kids pass this year to become adult, entering a new world, becoming someone new.'  -talk on life

High school realities are different from place to place.  They depend on culture, religion, income, kinds of family, nations, wealth, social care, and more.  A high school can be anything.  They generally have realities like rich and poor, in and out, up and down, success and failure.  Not all students succeed and most generally don't care to be there.  They go because they are compelled by society, law, parents, church, and more.  Its this 'support' that drives the high school student, compelling him, requiring that he spend his years in high school.

—-Age 18

For most anyone this is a monumental year.  Here kids suddenly become adult.  They are forced into adult ways, thinking adult, going to work, thinking on romance and spouse, perhaps contemplating starting a family and having offspring.  Here they abandon childhood ways like toys, games, playgrounds, dolls, and the like and take on new habits.  They are now into sports, scholastics, professionalism, being acceptable, getting married, and adult ways.  Parents now realize they are grown and that they must accept themselves in an adult world.  Here they can gain rights like being allowed to drink alcohol, to stay up and go out alone without curfew, to drive a car, and to vote.  Society is now trusting in him as adult, giving him license, accepting him as a citizen.

In the next essays, we will review realities that shape the life of a high school student.

'Society is a vast reality of old, young, and baby, male and female, the rich and poor, the up and down, the powerful and powerless.  It is a complicated jungle amazing, confusing, and bewildering, shaping life, being shaped by the world as the world itself.'    -talk on life

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Qualities of High School 'Time'

A high school student's life is a complicated reality.  It is more than just classes and school, there are attendant realities that affect his life.  He is shaped by these years, gaining influence, gaining shape that will last for a lifetime.  Here in this section, we will review essays on attendant realities that shape the life of any high school student.

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'Man is more than just himself.  He is shaped by the world he lives in of climate, life, cultures, faith, society, and so much else.  He is something, born, moving, being influenced by so much, being shaped by the reality he is in.'      -talk on life

—-The 'World' of the High School Student

Name.  When a baby is born, he/she is given a name, word meaning you.  It depends on the culture, age, and nation where parents decide to name the baby.  Sexes will be given their name.  In the USA, a girl's name can be Barbara, Cindy, Samantha, Brittany, Lauren, Laura, etc.  A boy's name can be David, Charles, Michael, George, John, Ralph, Samuel, etc.  Other societies have other tendencies.  Arab cultures name their boys 'Mohammed' al.  Chinese cultures use the name 'Chang'.  Native Americans use names like Big Thunder, Fast Horse, etc.  In all names depend on the age and culture, tendencies thereof.  People can be given salutations like Mr. Mrs. Miss, Dr., etc.  People can pass a name through generations like 'Mike Smith the 14th, or junior'.

Up and  Down.  Nobody lives a perfect life and perfect people do not exist.  In many families there will be epic problems like:

-arguments -isolation -pranks -deaths -bad comments -bad looks -antics -bad grades -backstabbing -narcissism -outcasting -failure -success -discrimination

-sibling rivalry -hate -jealousy -rage -bad neighbors -pollution -messiness -unkempt -truancy -tardiness, and so much else.  Families have to cope with all manner of problem, smoothing out problems, discussing things in maturity, and finding peace where war can be.  Family life is by no means heavenly and people have to cope with each other if a family is to survive if not succeed.

Family.  For many they are born to a reality called family.  It can consist of a mother, father, brothers, and sisters.  It is a reality they grow up with, cohabit with, and make a life.  With it they know fellowship, belonging, games, parties, events, and life.  It forms who they are, what they become, becoming a reality they hang with for a lifetime.  It is the most important social group they will know.  However things can go wrong with it like beatings, estrangement, outcasting, broken homes, sudden death, and more.  It is not an easy reality to live with, but it is something they will live with though.  Its reality can be anything, it all depends on race, culture, wealth, nationality, and other factors.

-Holidays.  People are taught to identify with a culture.  Here they learned patriotism, dress, customs, habits, religion, ceremony, government, nationality, and such.  As part of a culture, people are taught to honor some days as holy, sacred, a time for festivity, a time for siesta, or a break from life.  This would see the custom of the holiday.  Holidays can manifest as anything like religion, nationality, something 'holy', or what.  Holidays are enshrined in a calendar.  When they occur people may take to celebrating it.  Holidays depend on the culture that honors it.  Famous holidays in the world are:

-the Queen's birthday -New Year's Day -Christmas -Halloween -Thanksgiving -Kwanzaa -Easter -Ramadan -the Buddha's birthday -a national day -May Day, etc.

-Mother.  This is a female person who gave birth to you.  She acts as a parent, guiding, protecting, being a resource, and companion.  She is married to your father, made a relative, an anchor of your family.  She is a constant presence, some one to relate with and make a life.  In time kids learn to adore their mothers, but it is not always so.

——-Babysitter.  When kids are young they may realize their mother is too busy to care for them all the time.  Here their mother gives them off to a babysitter paid to sit with them while mom is away.  She can be an aunt, cousin, grandma, neighbor girl, or someone else.  She can the role as a surrogate mother, someone a kid connects to and perhaps feels affection for.

——-Nanny/Governess.  In families known for wealth and privilege, they may employ servants who act the role of nanny or governess.  She tends to be a strong-willed elderly female made to act like a 'foster mother' over children if the parents are away too much.  She takes care of the kids, drills them in morality, 'right speak', 'right behavior', discipline, obedience, and respect for elders.  If kids disobey or rebel, she applies 'punishment' to keep them in line.  Persons like this tend to appear in royal families, noble houses, high society households, and elite homes.  They are so employed to make sure kids grow up 'right', disciplined, and 'correct' for any place in 'high society'.  Other kinds of 'servant' are butlers, chef, maid, nanny, gardener, master of the horse, chauffeur, etc.

——-Foster Parents.  In families where parents go on to die or kids are given up for adoption, kids are 'given' to 'parents' to care for them, to find a family, and to make friends.  Kids later identify with such 'parents' and learn to 'accept' the situation if their parents die, get convicted, abandon kids, or disappear in some way.

-Father.  This is a male person who also participated in birthing you.  He acts in roles like the mother but is of a different sex.  He tends to be dominating, in charge, overlord, a friend, helper, and companion.  You look to him and he looks down on you.  You are below him, answerable to him, yet you may find a bond adoring him, but it is not always so.  He can be a lifelong friend, go indifferent, die and depart, and even become a hated relative.

———-Servants.  In rich families and households, parents may finance and hire on staff as servants.  There can be people who work in roles like personal chef, butler, maid, chauffeur, nanny, governess,