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Adolescence
Adolescence and Aging Out of High School Early
When ready to graduate high school before senior year
Posted March 5, 2012
Most parents know that the kindergarten through grade twelve organization of education in the United States is not scientifically justified, but is socially arbitrary.
In the same way they know that K-12 schooling not only serves an educational purpose, but several others as well. It is a weekday childcare system for parents who are away at work to support their families. It is a vast employment system in which millions of adults earn their living. And it is a selective mobility system which tends to socially advantage certain groups of students and disadvantage others. Mandatory education serves multiple functions.
Children progress through this system year by year, each year a different grade. Sometimes parents will see that their child is developmentally out of step with the progression and may skip a grade because their child is academically advanced for her age, or may hold the their child back a year to allow more time for his physical and social growth. In either case, parents adjust placement in the 12-grade system to fit what the child needs.
Now consider what can happen when along about late sophomore or the start of junior year a young person feels like she is aging out of high school early. Most commonly this feeling is described as not belonging there anymore, not fitting in, being out of step with peers, the sense that she is socially "done" with high school and is impatient to move on, to graduate early and get a job or maybe go to college.
In any case, she is looking toward a next step in life and sees a final year of high school for its own sake just getting in the way.
An older teenager may have gotten to this place of discomfort from socially maturing faster than her age mates, she may have formed closed friendships with upper classmen that are now graduated and gone, she may have academically accelerated her course of study so college now feels like the logical next step, she may want to enter the world of work and get started operating on her own, she may feel like completing a fourth year of high school rather than move her forward in life will only hold her back.
When a young person starts talking to parents in these terms, they need to take the discussion seriously. To graduate high school early requires accumulating sufficient academic credit in a shorter period of time.
This takes a lot of additional initiative, effort, and responsibility. It means working with the high school counselor on early graduation planning. And it entails coming to terms with missing out on a lot of the social fellowship with old friends that is celebrated senior year, including graduating with classmates.
Specifically, how can a high school student gain the required credit hours to accomplish early graduation? Consider a few possible ways.
The student may be able to earn additional credits by attending summer school.
The student may be able to take a ‘zero hour' class offered before the standard school day begins.
The student may be able to take an accredited correspondence or online course in addition to those taken at school.
The student may be able to take an outside class at a local community college and perhaps receive dual credit - for high school and college.
The student may be able to get credit by exam, passing a state approved exit exam for a course not actually taken.
The student may be able to get into a college that has an early admission program that accepts students not yet graduated from high school.
For parents, this push for early graduation can be difficult because the young person will be taking independence earlier than they anticipated. However, just because the school system is designed K - 12 doesn't mean that progress through the system cannot be accelerated where appropriate. After all, young people develop in adolescence at different rates and thus the timing of leaving the shelter of family often varies from one child to another.
To treat a teenager strictly according to her age at home and grade at school when she has demonstrated maturity beyond her years makes no good sense. If she is ready to move on with her life because she has aged out of high school early, and if she is willing to do the extra work to make early graduation happen, then the time has probably come to let her go.
For more about parenting adolescents, see my book, "SURVIVING YOUR CHILD'S ADOLESCENCE" (Wiley, 2013.) Information at: www.carlpickhardt,.com
Next week's entry: Adolescence and Addiction
