You’re a senior, one month away from graduation. You’re sitting in math class, with the teacher explaining some concept you don’t care about enough to learn. Your stomach cramp worsens, and you decide that you have to use the bathroom. You raise your hand politely and the teacher excuses you with the request that you “make it fast” because you’re missing important content.

At the same time, you’re making one of the biggest choices of your life: which college, and which career path, will give you the best possible rest of your life?

You, the senior who will be living completely independently in just a few months, still have to ask permission to use the bathroom. For how much longer will you have to do this?

In college, you’ll gain the right to go to the bathroom whenever you wish, along with many other slightly more significant rights and expectations.

But why wait until college? In terms of non-academic responsibility, schools treat seniors nearly identically to freshman, then are surprised at how some first-year college students become overwhelmed with independence, leading to confusion, failure, and eventually, dropout.

Our schools, as a whole, need to offer more realistic responsibility and independence to the upperclassmen. The time to learn the life skills required in college is now.