[rayiner]

What social experiences do you feel like you missed out on? Having teachers ignore you and spend 90% of their time dealing with problem kids? The petty drama? How many people look back fondly on K-12 and think “man, that was great?”

Read Sasse’s “the vanishing American adult.” It’s got some great commentary on what’s wrong with modern school. We take kids, and instead of having them be around adults to socialize them, we let them loose on their own little child-dominated Lord of the Flies society.

[paulgb]

Dealing with petty drama in K-12 is good low-stakes practice for dealing with petty drama in adult life.

I always took Lord of the Flies as an allegory to adult society rather than a book about children.

[asark]

> I always took Lord of the Flies as an allegory to adult society rather than a book about children.

It certainly is, the book even beats you over the head with it when (spoiler warning I guess?) the warship shows up to rescue them at the end.

I do think the K-12 school doesn't particularly resemble adult life, and is a lot worse in most ways. For one thing, leaving bad situations isn't really an option, while at the same time anti-social behavior is more tolerated. Meanwhile you're doing a bunch of work on things that are quickly round-filed when you're done with them, year after year, and operating under a system that's strangely strict and dehumanizing considering how much shittiness it allows to go on. And I had a pretty good school experience, so this isn't coming from some place of special bitterness.

[camelNotation]

> Dealing with petty drama in K-12 is good low-stakes practice for dealing with petty drama in adult life.

There's really no evidence for this. The only reason anyone believes this is because modern school is a living hell and if the suffering and misery doesn't serve some practical purpose, we'd all be depressed.

The truth is that there are plenty of people who are schooled privately that turn out just fine.

[harryh]

Dealing with petty drama in K-12 is good low-stakes practice for dealing with petty drama in adult life.

I am not at all convinced that this is true.

See: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

[inetknght]

> What social experiences do you feel like you missed out on?

If you're only interested in social experiences then there's all the obvious answers: girlfriends, team memberships, or even just how to discover and talk to other people my age with similar interests. Standing up for myself is hard. Simply talking to people is hard. How to filter the words I say so that people don't take offense to me expressing an opinion.

If you want to expand your question, then also: art, business, chemistry, college, even joining the military required a high school diploma.

[burfog]

I went to a public high school and I also missed out on all those things. It sounds like you got an equivalent education!

We often mistakenly think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. I suggest to you that in the alternate history, with you in a public school, you also would not have had girlfriends. I sure didn't have any, despite being tall and slightly athletic.

The same goes for being able to filter words to not cause offense. One time, that got me fired! My public school education served me just as well as your education served you.