Life is also a tight shoe, and an endurance test. Are people better off listening to Nirvana than to the Grateful Dead? The names almost imply the same state of being. High school is a modern tragedy. A youth wasted on meaningless work. If there is no meaningful work to give high schoolers, work that would make a contribution to the world, then there isn't really much point in the mandate of high school.
More than a preparation for service/jobs/work i see high school as a preparation for the world we face as grown ups. It is really no different in the sense that we graduated from high school only to enter college or the school of life which continues throughout our lives.
Art added something here (see kingfisher111 above in this thread.) that was quite similar to what Amma recently said when i saw her. That is that we should be grateful to be here because we have a chance to learn.
"Life, however, I do think is an actual school, only a prison if you imagine it to be, because it becomes what you imagine it, for better or worse.
I love life! I love experience! I love people, and animal and plants and all the elements!
The lessons never cease, but are always rewarding and enrich the quality of future experiences!
To Life! The great school!" ~Art
