High School
Local laws and international laws might be a little different but humanity's laws are pretty much the same. Anywhere in the world you go, if an individual kills another individual for money, sx, power, position, influence, sport, greed, intolerant attitude, or any other inhumane reason, they must get punished. e.g. 09/2001, Afgha......, 2003 and every subsequent action inhumanely done to not get punishment.
Locally, people are going to work and working hard honorably to make money to buy food they can eat with respect, then make money to build whether it is a business or their employer and then use money to drive nice cars, and live life. That is the American way. Not what really and actually happened above.
“Acquire knowledge. It stays with you for a lifetime.”
I was never taught to acquire knowledge. It just sort of became an interest to me, then a desire then an outright passion. I love to read. I love to listen. I love to observe.
When I was in high school, I read a 400-page psychology book at the very back of the room in a class that wasn’t about psychology. I don’t know why it just interested me. I’m not saying you should read a psychology book; just pick up something that interests you but always keep your brain alert and accepting. Always talk to people that aren’t similar to you. Why? To listen and learn from them. Always read something that isn’t similar to you. Why? To acquire knowledge.
For high school students who need academic help:
“No man is an island.”
Ask for help. The only dumb question is the one not asked (except for one). In high school, I would read everything I didn’t understand once. Then I would use angular brackets to highlight the most important things. Then I would read only the text within the angular brackets. Then I would keep re-reading it until I knew it by heart. I’m not super-smart. I just knew how I learned. It might seem ironic, but I taught myself how to learn. You have to understand how you think. When you understand that, it is a lot easier to figure out the steps of learning. For me, it is through re-reading the most important things. For you, it could be something different. Whatever it is, figure it out and then apply it.
In my senior year, I taught a tall black basketball athlete that needed tutoring so he asked and I agreed. We would go to the local fast food restaurant (which one doesn’t really make any difference) after my cross country run and his workout and I would just stay with it until he understood. He wasn’t an idiot or a genius. He just needed someone to show him the way, the right way to learn and he asked for help, which was the first and biggest step that he took. He acknowledged his own limitations and he didn’t have an ego (which means a willingness to learn). I wasn’t in basketball, I wasn’t as tall as him, I didn’t have as many girlfriends as him, but he didn’t have an ego (plus he needed to clear a certain GPA or he wouldn’t be able to play in college because of graduation from high school).
For high school students that have a part-time job:
I worked at Del Taco during I think my sophomore or junior year, usually on the weekends, and maybe 1 or 2 days during the weekdays. One time, it was raining hard and I didn’t want to use that as an excuse. So I put on an old t-shirt, pants and a light jacket in a plastic bag then in a school bag, I put my clothes that I was going to change into when I reached Del Taco. I got drenched. I mean soaked. Then I went to the bathroom, changed my clothes, and went to work. I cycled there with my bicycle that I bought with the money I earned from my newspaper delivery route.
As I mentioned earlier, there’s nothing wrong with working part-time in high school or in the university if you understand that it is just the means to the end not the end itself.
For high school students who have low self-esteem:
Sign up for the Yearbook Club. It’s great. You get to take pictures of cheerleaders. You have an excuse to talk to them. All kidding aside, low self-esteem is due to reasons best known to each individual. Later on, I describe about knowing yourself – the way you think and consequently feel – and knowing the other person. You don’t need to read a psychology book. As I said earlier, you need to understand the way you think, then understand the way the other person thinks. When you do, you’re golden.
Mr. Kaufhold, my Yearbook teacher, in my senior year, when I was late to class right after lunch, said, “Oh, Ankur, you just missed my lecture on tardiness.” I loved that wit. It was my senior year so it was difficult to worry about after school detention when I knew I’d be in college within a few months.
Bullying:
I was cool with a lot of people in my high school, but there was one person who for some reason just didn’t like me. I didn’t try to befriend him or ask him why. I just did not pay attention to him. So in my language class, he was just like I’m going to fight you after school and I was indifferent because I knew the guy didn’t realize my friend had sat next to him, heard him say that and told him to back off. I didn’t care either way but there was no fight.
For high school students that smoke:
With Indian culture (not Native American), my parents never told me don’t smoke. They just expected it, but I would say to the parents of children with multi-cultural backgrounds, don’t just expect that your child will not smoke. The way I learned to not smoke is in my senior year in high school, I saw a picture of a lung of a decades-long smoker that had cancer. The lung looked decayed, dirty, and dark. It was next to a picture of a healthy lung. The first reaction I had was I never want my lungs to look so unhealthy. If famous people who died from lung cancer or pictures of unhealthy lungs were shown to high school students or were on the pack of cigarettes, there would be less smokers that would in turn live longer and lead productive lives.
Participate in a sport:
Physical activity is known to release endorphins which help you release stress and feel good mentally. You will feel better. If you’re not good at the sport, it’s alright. Just work out. You will also have more self-esteem and, of course, if you cross country or track, like I did in my high school, you will have healthier lungs. Participating in a sport is also for high school students who are fat or unhealthy. Physical activity also fosters social connections because of shared activity. It also gives you a sense of pride and worth when you physically accomplish something. I remember in high school there were always students that slacked in physical education and the teacher didn’t really care but I think it is absolutely necessary in today’s world. Runner’s World is a great magazine for cross country and track. I think the high schools should keep similar sports magazines for the different sports. Also, in the freshman year of high school, I would suggest students only sign up for one sport. High school is much different than junior high school or middle school. With the hectic schedules, it can very quickly get overwhelming. Then as the student gets accustomed to the busy schedule of managing a sport along with academics, they can think of joining a club or other extracurricular activity or even another sport. I think that’s much better than to try to do more than possible.
I understand the parents that want to move into better neighborhoods for the high schools but why not just increase the level and strength of public education. Give the teachers higher pay. Then equip the public schools with the library books, tools and technology needed to compete. Eventually it works out because when the teachers are better at their jobs, the students are more likely to go to a university. More education means higher salaries. The people are less likely to commit crimes and go to jail, which means the government spends less money on incarceration and rehabilitation. The people are less likely to be homeless so there’s less social spending. The government then has more money on more critical spending in technological infrastructure, roads, waterways and other areas like Veteran Affairs. It also means more innovation, which is described with examples later. All of this means the national economy grows and is more competitive internationally. It all goes back to a quote by Lincoln:
“You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
Don’t sell the sizzle or the steak. You just have to step up. I cannot stress this enough. You cannot fool all of the people all of the time. So, it is better to increase capability now so when it is time to step up, you’re ready to compete.
For high school students who don’t know if they should go to a university:
Yes. Get higher education. The first two years of your university days are general subjects anyway. You will learn so much. I would encourage students to join clubs, fraternity/sorority, language courses, things which you are interested in. You will naturally find what you want to do with your life. Talk to your high school guidance counselor if you aren’t sure of the major. It’s alright. Just attend a university. Don’t even worry about financial aid. If you don’t qualify or you just cannot afford it, then go part-time and work part-time. Whatever you’re earning from your part-time job is pale in comparison to what you’ll earn when you are a university graduate.
When I went into my science teacher’s room in the 12th grade, there was an awesome poster. It had the Earth, then its relative size and position to the Sun, then the Sun’s relative size and position to the solar system, then the solar system’s relative size and position to the galaxy, then the galaxy’s relative size and position to nearby stars and then the universe. It was mind-boggling. Then there should have been a quote:
“There is other life in the universe or we’re all alone. Either way, it’s scary.”
You’re on the Earth for a reason. Find the reason. Then use your time purposefully and with conviction. Remember the following quote by Roosevelt:
“If you fail, fail while daring greatly so that your place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
I didn’t take a creative writing course until the University of California, Riverside (UCR) but I can say to the high school students writing their college/university admissions essay:
The reader of your essay has read thousands of essays. They can spot a fake from the real deal a mile away. So be true to your reader. Talk about the skills you learned in high school, how you will apply them to succeed in higher education and the skills you want to learn.
In my college essay, I wrote that my cross country coach once told us: “Everyone wants to win and the will to win. Very few have that will to work to win.”
I got accepted to an advanced biomedical degree program where you get your Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in seven years, but I still think they confused my application with someone else’s so somehow I got accepted into a program where only a dozen like them existed in the entire country. The admissions rate is as low as the admissions acceptance rate into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you don’t make it, you’ll still be among the stars.”