If you get a crappy education in HS, despite your abilities, you're far behind your peers who got a very good one. Whether you then apply yourself in college, you remain behind those people because they keep on keepin on.
That's not so true today as it once was for kids who have access to the internet. If you've got a hunger to learn, there's plenty of fodder. My life would have been quite different if I'd had the net to learn from.
As to whether it's necessary depends on what you feel life is all about, and/or what real talents (not addressed by mainstream ed) you have. Highly self-motivated people (or who fortune smiles on) can usualy live without HS. Most of the rest of us need it to cope in an ever-more-complex world.
That's not so true today as it once was for kids who have access to the internet. If you've got a hunger to learn, there's plenty of fodder. My life would have been quite different if I'd had the net to learn from.
As to whether it's necessary depends on what you feel life is all about, and/or what real talents (not addressed by mainstream ed) you have. Highly self-motivated people (or who fortune smiles on) can usualy live without HS. Most of the rest of us need it to cope in an ever-more-complex world.