We Aren't Flawed-It's the System

I'll be the first one to say that the American school system is deeply flawed. There are some things I enjoy about it-I like being able to join clubs, and to be able to go back to college if I wanted to. But that doesn't mean I like it. I don't think anyone does.
People are surprised when I say I don't like school. They usually ask why. I think I'm wasting my time, and then they ask what I think I should be doing.
I'm not sure, exactly. But I think sitting in school for eight hours a day isn't that. And I don't think for eight hours are helping me figure out what I should be doing. The American school system doesn't work for it's students. And while I think the article we read in class today addressed that, I also think it was really pretentious-for all the ideas, it promoted no way to transform those ideas into reality.
Leon Botstein, author of Let Teenagers Try Adulthood probably has no kids or grand kids in school at the moment. He proposes that because high school focuses so much on social development, not mental growth, teenagers are left feeling empty when high school ends (What now?) or unsure of what to do with the future (How am I supposed to be an adult?)
Truth is, I don't think that anybody really knows how to be an adult. Some people go to the best schools around and get into the best universities, and they still forget to pay a bill every once in a while, or accidentally spill coffee on their shirt, or are late to meetings. The tasks we see as adult jobs can really only be learned through trial and error, not through school.
Does that mean that schools shouldn't prepare teens and children for the future? Of course not. I think that there should be more of an emphasis on finding a career and college planning. But I don't think the focus should be to become a perfect adult, because to be honest, I'm sure most "adults" honestly have no clue what's going on.

People think that teenagers can't handle the adult world, and they're right. But that's because we're teenagers! I can barely remember to make breakfast in the morning. And that's okay.
Botstein suggests that "By the time those who graduate from high school go on to college and realize what really is at stake in becoming an adult, too many opportunities have been lost and too much time has been wasted." But isn't having children graduate at 16 and enter college or the workforce already forcing them to give up opportunities? Honestly, Botstein has good intentions, he does. But don't get mad at teenagers for surviving the adult world, because newsflash, nobody really gets it.