Another Rant About Schools

Every year, it's the same scene. Chester the Freshman is running down the main hall, which is difficult because he's carrying everything he owns in his backpack. CF is scared, obviously he has drawn the attention of one of the football players, and is fleeing for his life. Yep, momentarily, the entire varsity defensive line appears, in hot pursuit; another school year has begun in high school. Pick one; doesn't matter, you'll see the scene played out in every high school in America, every year.
Some call it "hazing," some call it "bullying," but it's all the fault of school districts from coast-to-coast. In a haste to teach math, science, and language to acceptable test standards, schools fail to teach children how to use math, science, and language in their lives, and about "working and playing well with others". By the time they get to high school, they should be used to being around people with all types of abilities, and disabilities, but they aren't. So they aren't prepared to "go to the next level," as the popular phrase goes.
There should be, in the year before a student attends high school, a semester-long class on transitioning to high school. It could be a big help towards surviving a freshman, or sophomore year. Kids need to know, in advance, that there are students, in high school, that have little-to-no regard for their welfare, modesty, or existence. Perhaps, instead, an extra week, in the freshman/sophomore year, so they know how to get around, and are less likely to stand out. Either way, they should learn what's in store for them.
And while I'm on this subject, would the teachers who drill into their middle school student's minds that "the best way to start an essay is with a question," please freaking stop. I have had to work, sometimes, years to get students to stop doing it. At least, for God's sake, if you have to hang with that philosophy, teach them what a rhetorical question is. If I had a nickle for every essay I've read that began with a "Yes or No" question, at least I'd have something to show for my efforts. Get a life. My standard response was "No," or the opposite of what the writer was getting at, with a note, "Rewrite opening paragraph. No questions, please." Time and time again, I should have had a rubber stamp made. Personally, I find a personal anecdote to be appropriate in almost all forms of writing, even professional/technical.
Any way, getting back to my original topic, a lot of the hazing/bullying in high school could be prevented if kids understood what was out there. Things like, "No student in middle school drives a car, half-to-two-thirds of high school students do." Simple enough, but I bet I could get an hour out of it, at least, possibly a whole unit. Lesson Objective: The student will understand that sixteen year-old drivers are dangerous, and survive to be one.
Looking back, I was lucky. I was new to the town, which already was "strike one," socially, but I made friends, somehow, with a senior, that year, who at 6'2", and 245 pounds, was the biggest kid in school. Because of his prowress at football, wrestling, and track -- he was a big "country boy," raised on a ranch -- he was given a great deal of respect. His friendship pretty much ended my days of "freshman orientation," but not the bullying altogether, after all, he was gone the next year.