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Comment by redwards510 | Hacker News Reader

Running Start alumni here. It's an amazing program, but I often wonder if it was the right decision. Leaving high school at 10th (of 12) grade had a major impact on my life. I lost out on those long term friendships, prom, senior year, graduation, and the collective preparation for college, as well as missing out on freshman year OF university, etc. I don't have high school reunions to attend. In the end, it didn't catapult me to anything special, just saved my parents a lot of money on tuition.

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> I lost out on those long term friendships, prom, senior year, graduation, and the collective preparation for college, as well as missing out on freshman year OF university, etc.

The importance of these "experiences" is garbage baby boomers feed young people because they're the decadent generation. Most generations prior to them never had those things. (It wasn't until WWII that more than 50% of Americans graduated high school.) I skipped senior prom to go to a robotics competition. I assume I attended graduation, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you where it was or anything that happened. I have plenty of friends from college and law school. I missed my 10-year high school reunion because my daughter was born the same week, but as far as I can tell from the pictures it was in a large basement of some sort.

>The importance of these "experiences" is garbage baby boomers feed young people because they're the decadent generation

This abject bitterness is only a minor counterpoint to harmless rituals held by many many people.

Outside of the MAGA contingent, people hope to build a better life than the previous generation had. Working 50 years at the steel mill isn't the American Dream.

If you live your life in a bubble apart from the rest of humanity, and you are happy, good for you. If you couldn't find friends in high school, sympathy for you. But most humans are social creatures who put value on having community.

Working in a steel mill would be a much more valuable life experience than senior year of high school for most people. And it’s not like people in the 1930s didn’t have community. To the contrary, they had much more of it than we do these days, where everyone leaves their home town to go office to college, chasing a school a few points higher on some ranking.

> I lost out on those long term friendships

That would still have happened, only two years later.

> I don't have high school reunions to attend.

Is this an american thing? I am living in Germany and I know plenty of people that don't care about high school reunions at all.

I don't know your situation, but you might be idealizing.

I went to a similar program, I personally loved it. It's not for everyone, but for me it was amazing.

The 7 AM to 4 PM schedule of high schools is just insane. No kid needs to be at school that long, and that early. And most classes give out excessive homework on top of that.

Conventional high schools are infantilizing, harmful to health (waking up at 6 AM to get to class is absurd), and teach people to hate learning. And if you're not a social butterfly you can expect to be bullied as well.

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