And Another Thing

[oselle]

Another thing I thought about during last night's episode but forgot to mention because I was so distracted by BOWLEGGED SHORTS was the near impossiblity of Dean still being in school at the ripe old age of eighteen. I have always thought it very unlikely that Dean finished high school at all.

I think what the episode did get right is that, unlike Sam, Dean hated school and felt completely out of place there. Plus, I'm sure he knew from a pretty early age that academic skills had little value for his future. I've always imagined that he dropped out as soon as he hit sixteen. Of course, I can also imagine John not being too happy with that development and possibly forcing Dean to endure a few months of his junior year, but in the end I'm sure John decided that butting heads with Dean on this issue just wasn't worth it -- and, realistically, Dean really did have better things to do, whether he was hunting with his father or holding down a job while Dad was away. So the idea that Dean would have been all of eighteen and still going to class full time is kind of preposterous...though not nearly as preposterous as the idea that Sam could be nine years old and still be ignorant of his father's line of work.

Sometimes I think the writers just don't think things through very well.

At any rate, SHORTS.

Comments

[smilla02.livejournal.com]

Most definitely, I agree. I don't think Dean finished High School, not if that was what was going on. I wonder when, and if, Dean ever gave a damn about school, anyway. He has the skills and the brain, but I don't think he ever found someone a teacher like Mr Wyatt perhaps who saw his potentialities behind the apparence.

But really, I just wanted to add to the chorus. SHORTS!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I don't think Dean is stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but I suspect that a combination of nature and nurture just made him unsuited for school from day one. I can imagine him enduring it for just as long as he legally had to and then bailing as soon as he could. Not only would he have felt that school had nothing to offer him but he must have felt completely alienated from other kids his age. I'm sure Sam did too but the big difference is that Sam really wanted to be in school whereas Dean didn't.

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

You're right. Perhaps Dean's there just to watch out for Sam.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but I just see Dean taking a job and assuming the parental role while Dad was out of town. Not that he couldn't have done both -- plenty of kids have afterschool jobs -- but I just don't see it. This episode would probably have worked better if Dean had been 16 or so (not that the actor looked 16 any more than he looked 18!) and Sam had been 12. It would have been more plausible for Dean to have still been in school full time and the actor who played Sam looked a lot closer to 12 than 14, late growth spurt or not!

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

I agree that Sam here is too young. 12 will be great and they could find another Dean that is much younger than Kelly.

[smidirini.livejournal.com]

I was kind of wondering about that because if this was November 1997 the Dean didn't graduate until Summer 1998. He would have turned 19 in January 1998. So he would have been in school for 4 or 5 months after he turned 19?

Is this normal? It's not normal here. People finish school at 17 or 18 here usually.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Most kids here graduate from high school when they're 17. There's a cutoff date for kindergarten/first grade registration and kids who are born after a certain date in the year usually don't start first grade until they're 7 years old, which means they're already 18 when they graduate high school. Graduating at 19 would be highly unusual. I think it's plausible that Dean might have missed a year of school and have not started first grade until he was 8 years old, but I have a really hard time imagining him sticking it out to the end of the senior year of high school. I just don't think he would have given a shit.

[smidirini.livejournal.com]

I guess maybe he stuck around for an in with the Cheerleaders and to keep an eye on Sammy :P

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

I honestly thought that maybe Dean was just in school to watch over Sam, not necessarily because he was still "in" school. I mean, why not? He can goof off and hook up with hot chicks, right? ;-)

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Maybe I've read too much fanfic but I see Dean at this age as being responsible enough to think having a job and paying the rent would be more important than goofing off in school. And there are plenty of other places to meet hot chicks!

[lomer.livejournal.com]

In my personal canon Dean started kindergarden a year late because of Mary which is why he was a little old here. Though my sister graduated high school at 18 (almost 19) because her birthday was later in the summer and she was past the cut off date for attending kindergarden.

I always sort of figured Dean finished high school if only because John couldn't imagine one of his boys not finishing high school. College was a luxery but high school? Mary would have been ashamed of him if his boys didn't finish high school. Plus I see Dean liking some of the classes, math in particular. It's just the majority of the classes he would have found useless.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I just made a comment above that it's believable that Dean would have started school late. But I just have a hard time thinking of him finishing -- even if his father made him do it. With John out of town so often, I can see Dean playing an awful lot of hooky.