How many people have a High School Diploma?

Post Reply New Topic

Well the title is the first question, and my second is did you actually want to get the diploma, or did/are you doing it just because that what people expect. I'm having a paticularly hard time finding any meaning in the diploma Im only going for it because that is what I was told I should get, i have no care for it.

Also do you think that maybe some of us were not meant to get jobs and live a normal life , with or without a partner? I know I'm only 16 but I just look at my track record over the years starting from 13 and everythng has gotten worse off in it's own way. I'm terribly afraid that I will not be able to adjust to this worlds social order, and therefore I will not be able to support my self. I lack much of my life dependency skills suck as showering, sometimes eating, sleeping, changing clothes and so forth, Its not that I forget to do them they are just never on my brains natural todo list If you will.

I'm just concerned for my life I really don't have the tools to keep my self running and my parents won't be around for ever, I almost wish I were not aware of my problems because it may have made it a tad bit easier. I still find it hard to beleive that I can be loved, I mean a monster like me I just can't see how people do it.

I got my diploma, but if I had my way, I would have dropped out, and started working, at the age of 16.

I think you may be suffering from some depression, but if you are physically capable of doing basic things like eating and showering and you have no memory impairment, then your brain's 'to-do' list is simply your own personality intentionally avoiding doing them, and that is simple excuse-making. For all the things I actually cannot do, that I've taken heated flack for all my life, someone using AS as an excuse for not bathing is an insult.

As for getting a High School diploma - AS is not retardation, so again there's no legitimate reason for you to be allowed to lie around like a lump and accomplish nothing just because you're not motivated. I know at 16 you can't clearly picture this, but your parents are not going to be around to wipe your butt for you forever. People age and die and one day it's going to be just you, all by yourself alone, with (if you're lucky) the Big Brother system. Here's where you will be:

A) Unwashed, toothless and irrational, sleeping under a bridge by the nearest river, begging for change outside strip malls and liquor stores during the day, eating the garbage leftovers that others throw away and eventually stabbed to death with a rusty fork by another homeless person for the ball cap you found in a dumpster.

B) Drooling on yourself in a chair, in a roomful of shuffling, screaming zombies, while a television you have no control over drones Maury Povich and Judge Judy and All My Children all day long. You won't bathe yourself because you won't be able to stand up without assistance - the doctors will keep you drugged numb so you don't annoy anyone. However, you will be stripped and washed three times a week by a nurse's aide who looks like Charles Barclay, but isn't so nice.

Chances are, unless you have some other more serious condition, you won't be eligible for Disability Benefits for many years to come, and frankly the idea of that system is you work for as long as you're able and pay IN to the system before you start taking anything OUT. The liklihood is that you're going to have to work for a living whether you want to or not, and for a good long time, so get used to the idea.

NomadicAssassin, I had as much trouble as anybody getting through High School and I'm a long way from stupid - a certain number of math credits was a requirement and I'm pretty much lost at anything more complicated than the multiplication table, but I by gods did it, and even managed some college before I got distracted by A JOB that I fell in love with and continued to do for over thirty years.

Employers use those diplomas as evidence of what sort of person you are. Most large companies literally have separate pay scales they use for those who have College diplomas and those who don't. It doesn't usually matter to them what subject you have a degree in, only that you have the degree - because that shows them that you are capable of taking on a long-term project and seeing it through, without having to be constantly watched and herded. The assumption is that if you just stopped after High School and didn't pursue your education any further, you have no motivation and can't be depended on to get anything important done without being told exactly what to do every step of the way like a child.

Same is true for a High School diploma - employers figure if you couldn't even be bothered to take advantage of an education that was offered to you free of charge, and basically just show up and go through the motions, because let's face it, the Public School System ain't rocket surgery, then you're such a lump, you're not much use for anything that requires thought on any level. The jobs for people like that are the dregs - minimum wage, doing mostly physical labor, at extremely simple, boring, repetitive tasks. You want fries with that?

Life is a challenge for everybody. Some of us have bigger challenges than others, but the quality of your life is measured by how you choose to meet those challenges. Even if you don't always overcome them, living is the struggle. If you can't muster the will to even try, you're not really alive.

Last edited by Willard on 20 Jun 2010, 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I got my high school diploma. I stayed in school than dropping out. If it weren't for the extra help I got, I would have dropped out.

I know a high school diploma is supposed to make it easier for you to get a job or a GED. But with my experience, it's not so easy and finding a job is still tough and I have to be lucky. I am competing against other people who are applying too and have had experiences or better educations than me or better references or have had more experience. And I feel disabled by society like I am not meant to work and I am to sit at home and be on Social Security. Even keeping my AS a secret, I still can't get a job easily.

Maybe i wrote this post wrong, I in no way ment to use AS as an excuse, when i talked about the showering ect..., it literally never occurs to me to do those things. Yes, I have been diagnosed with depression and no the meds don't seem to be helping. its not because of the AS, that I forget to shower, I just do. With out my parents to tell me to shower and what not, i would be no where, so there is a problem there.



When it comes to school i forgot to mention that i also have an anxiety disorder and AS, it makes it nearly impossible for me to even get close to a school, i will literally lock up and/or have a panic attack, it took my mom walking over and dragging me out of the school area to regain control of myself. I've had all the tests done and I have sensory issues as well. My IQ was average so I know AS is not "retardation". I don't want to be a "lump".



Im sorry but if you read my post i listed that i know they wont be here forever.



Im sorry maybe i went to the wrong forum area this is the Haven right? I already know what will happen if I don't push myself and succeed. I am just struggling with that and needed some input.



Im sorry i have tried to reserve my self, but come on, im a 16 yr old boy, im not an adult, you know, You don't know me well enough to tell me what i am worth and what i will become.

Thank you to all the others who posted, i do value replies alot.

High school drop-out, currently working towards my GED. I don't really care that I did not graduate.

I don't have a HS diploma. I went to school less and less, simply not wanting to deal with the people and pressure. Eventually, I dropped out and got a GED, honestly expecting to never advance further in life than my job as janitor in a supermarket. After moving, trying different jobs and going to college briefly (dropped out there, too) I eventually joined the army, which has the advantage of hiring pretty much everyone and not being able to fire you. I hated the army at times, but it forced me to face things head on, literally (eye contact is a must, there). After a stint in private security and factory work, I now make a good living as a corrections officer.

All that said, don't give up on the diploma yet. I hate having to put 'No' under high school education on applications for things. But there are always other options. If you can take a multiple choice test, then you can get a job somewhere.

I have a high school diploma, and I got it coz that's what's expected of me (from my parents)...

I only got the darned thing to please my mom. I got an A.S. degree in Electronics because I thought it would help me to get a job.

Grade 10

Left during grade 11 as it was too much

Willard,

Read up on "Asperger's" and "Functional IQ". Most with AS fall around the level of someone with a academic IQ of 70, even though they have a normal academic one. Why is that?

I have my HS diploma. School was really stressful for me but I wanted it.

This, only left traditional schooling in grade 9 and left altogether in grade 10. I would be going into grade 12 normally now.

I would panic and refuse to go even if I wanted to go. School was constant stress and I would go home and throw fits. Even being held back a year, my peers seemed so far ahead of me in everyway besides perhaps academically (I don't have that edge though, just average intelligence so about on the same level.) Public schooling just isn't very plausible for me.

I technically have a diploma in the most literal sense, which is they gave me the piece of paper that says yes, I graduated. They also listed my name in the paper as one of the graduating seniors and called my name at the ceremony, though I wasn't there. However, I never actually graduated; they just assumed I would with online courses (which was the plan) since I was moving and gave me the stuff. Then, when my courses expired unfinished and relatively untouched, they just never felt the need to call up and ask, I guess.

I got my GED 2 years after I finished school, on the first date I could without parental and/or school consent. I found it to be ridiculously easy, and if I could go back, I think I would have pushed to take it at 16 so I could finish everything up much earlier. I had no problem being accepted into college.

Ultimately, I think a diploma or at least a GED is important to have. Even if college and the like doesn't seem important to you now, it's something that can be very helpful to you in the future. Not everyone who succeeds will have one, but it's easier if you can manage it.

I think your issue goes beyond a high school education though. You seem to be more worried about becoming independent one day, and that's something you should work on with a therapist.

yeah, i have one.

don't really think it was worth much though for all the good it's done me

Not to stray too far off topic, but the stereotypical view of the homeless is not always correct. I volunteered in a homeless shelter for about six months, and we had education ranges from dropped out of middle school to has a Master's Degree. (And while none were ever missing their teeth as far as I know, the man with that degree probably had the worst teeth.) There was no one that fit all of those things (unwashed, toothless, irrational, beggar, garbage); actually, I don't think anyone ever ate garbage, even when they were penniless. There's resources around if you know how to find them, and they were all very street smart. Of course, we did not have everyone (there was another, stricter shelter down the road, and many men chose to stay at the train site), but we had a fair few from all across the board.

That's not to say being homeless is fun/easy/good! Just that being homeless does not mean you're some kind of unwashed, ill hobo.

I talked about my feelings of worry of being independent to my therapist, he simply said you are thinking go far ahead, and he then proceeded to change the subject; yeah I was kind of angry. I have talked to my parents about getting a GED and they pretty much don't want me to do it, so I get to stay stuck in high school for another 2 to 3 years, i mean it's home schooled so that a little easier, but even with that I still just want to finish this nightmare called high school and go to the bigger and better things I plan on becomeing a quantum mechanics physist, I love math and science and atoms seem to thrill me, but that's ok I will get there soon just not yet.