Decision Making for after High School

Seniors in high school have to make a decision whether or not they are going to go to college, go to a trade or technical school, go into the military or work full time. I remember when I was making my decision on what to do after high school. It wasn't the easiest decision because I knew I needed to work to make money so I could get to and from work plus I also would have a two year old at home who I needed to raise. When reading chapter 15 it was interesting to me that in 2009 there was only 26 states in the United States require students to pass a high-stakes test in order to graduate. I know now that Pennsylvania has a test that students are required to take. They are called Keystones and my brother who is 15 has to to take these tests and they are not easy because he is having a problem passing. They also mentioned something about Common Core which is placing higher standards for every year of school. Some people think that it will improve education but some people think if teachers from K through 12 are teaching students so they can take a test then they could be destroying learning since they are mainly focused on memorization and ignoring analysis and intuition. I didn't learn what I needed to in high school to be ready for college and that made my first year tough. 

We all had to make a decision about life after high school. It isn't the easiest decision to make. I saw my 18 year old brother go through it last year. He doesn't know what he wants to do with his life and didn't know if he wanted to go to college or work. He decided to go to college and work. He is a part time student and works full time. Seeing my brother go through it was rough because he was like a lot of my friends that didn't know what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. Some of my friends went into the military, some decided to work, and some went to college. We shouldn't know what we want to do at the age of 18. We haven't lived or experienced life. Some feel you have to right after college because it is what we are supposed to do. Sometimes our parents pressure us also because they want us out of the house. We don't have the right decision making skills to make big life-altering decisions like that. Making the decision about college felt like the decision I had to make about either putting my son up for adoption or keeping him. We have to make big grown up decisions like college when we are still trying to find ourselves. Some of us go through things that help us grow up quicker then others. I lost my dad and I learned that I needed to grow up and start taking more responsibility. I guess that's where decision making comes into play when things occur in our lives.