Education is something that is very important in the world today. In America, education plays a key role in everyone’s life. Depending on the level of education that an individual has, it can affect the type of career they have. For example, people need a good education like a Ph.D. to become a doctor. Doctors are very educated people, and with their education, they’re able to help others. I thought this was interesting because education is something that I have a connection with every day. Education is something that can help achieve people's dreams, but in some cases, it can get in the way. Without it, it’s harder to find good jobs and live a good life. High school education in America is different depending on the state you’re from, or the family you live in. In America, there are different ways people choose to educate their children. There are public schools, private/boarding schools, and homeschooling. 

The most common are public schools. A public school is a school in your town or city that is funded by the town or taxpayers. In order for you to go to public school in America for “free,” all you have to do is live or own a property in the same town or city as the school. Typically, most public schools don’t have an education that is as good or elite as most private schools. Although, they still teach you the basic education that you need to survive and be a functioning person in our society. At most public schools, students can engage in after school activities such as drama club, band, chorus, and sports! Education in America is important, and public schools are very helpful in that aspect because for the most part, they are free. Unfortunately, there is still a downside to this is. In some public schools, there isn’t a lot of focus on the child's education because there can be many distractions. For some families, prices for supplies or lunches can be high. As well as, disrespectful peers, bullying, and even bigger issues like school shootings. Overall, I believe public schools are very helpful in America because they’re free, and they provide students with a broad education!

Private schools in America are schools offered to students who are very smart, and also well rounded with other activities. These schools can be very expensive, and only a select number of kids get accepted. For most private schools, smart students or students who are good at athletics can be granted scholarships. Private schools are unique because students from all over the world and country can enroll in them. In order to get into private school in America you need to take the SSAT which stands for the “Secondary School Admission Test.” Private schools help students get into good colleges, and it prepares them for the real world. At most private schools, students “board.” Boarding is when students are provided with food and lodging at the school. This means that the students stay on campus, just like they would in college. Private schools are known to “groom” students for their adult life, and prepare them for college and a career. Due to the cost and the talent/academics that a student has, it plays a huge role in their ability to get enrolled into a private school. But if a student does get the opportunity to go to a private school, I think it would be a very wise decision! 

Lastly, homeschooling is another form of high school education in America. Homeschooling is when the student gets taught at their own home, by a parent, or other qualified individual. This form of high school education is the least common. “Homeschooling in the United States constitutes the education of about 3.4% of U.S. students (approximately 2 million students).” (Homeschooling in the.) Depending on the state, there are different regulations for homeschooling. Some states don’t have any regulations but “Eleven states—Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia—require parents to have some form of educational qualification in order to homeschool (or in the case of Tennessee, to homeschool high school students). The required qualification is generally a high school diploma or GED, but Washington state goes further, requiring either college credits or the completion of a course in home-based study.” (Parent Qualifications.) Homeschooling is free, and it’s known for typically being more laid back than the other forms of high school education. This is mainly because the student stays home and doesn’t have any pressure from peers or others. I don’t know anybody who’s homeschooled, but many articles show that there are significant differences between homeschooling and private and public schools. Homeschooled students, don’t get to meet as many people or friends, so typically their social skills are sometimes slower. The education is known to be less demanding, and for the most part deadlines aren’t as strict for homeschooled students. Therefore, homeschooling is a good option for very busy students, students who need help with behaviour issues, or even if it just feels safer for the parent! 

Overall, I think all types of high school education have their own set of pros and cons, and I think that as long as you get educated you’ll be a good functioning human in our society. Whether it’s public, private, or home schooling they all provide you with important information that everyone needs to learn. Also, it’s wise to continue into college after graduating high school, so you can find a good job and so you can make money doing what you like to do! Personally, I don’t have a connection with all of the different types of high school education, but I do attend public school, which leads me to believe that it’s very important to try and succeed in high school so that I can go to college and be motivated to get a career that I’m happy with. 

The book that I read was called Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg, and the novel focuses on the impacts of motivation, as well as mentions how education plays a role on the characters and their lives. This story never specifically mentioned what type of high school education the character was enrolled in. Although I still think it was important because it showed that even though high school education is very important, sometimes people still don’t know how they want to apply it in their life, and I think this is rarely brought up in society and America today. In most cases it works like this; the educated people are motivated to find a career, and the uneducated are not. However in the book, one of the short stories showed that this isn’t always the case, and even those with an education still get unmotivated, or confused as to what they want to do in their life. For example, the character, Eric Quantanilla did have a high school education, but he still didn’t know what he wanted to do in his life.  

“Quantinilla was twenty-three years old. Five years earlier, he had graduated high school in a small town an hour south of Chicago. He had thought about going away to college, but he wasn’t certain what to study, wasn’t positive what he wanted to do afterward- wasn’t sure about much, to be honest” (21.) 

This passage informed me that even though Eric did have an education, he honestly still had no idea what he wanted to do in his life and he never even attended college, which is typically a misconception made by most. This book was important because it proves that, yes high school education is important, but it also showed that in real life, people with an education sometimes still don’t know what they want to do! 

In conclusion, public, private, and homeschooling are all very important in America, and they all have their pros and cons. But in some cases, those who do get properly educated, still don’t know what they want to do for a career, or how they want to spend their future! 

Works Cited

Duhigg, Charles. Smarter Faster Better. New York, Random House, 2016.

"Homeschooling in the United States." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling_in_the_United_States. Accessed 18 Oct. 2019.

"Parent Qualifications." Coalition for Responsible Home Education, www.responsiblehomeschooling.org/policy-issues/current-policy/parent-qualifications/. Accessed 18 Oct. 2019.