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Dad tells his son who is in high school this phrase

> どう転んでもいいように高校だけは出ておきなさい

I have difficulty comprehending the whole meaning of this phrase.

どう転んでも is some kind of idiom meaning "no matter how you do" right?

What いいように means here? According to [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/16315/meanings-and-
translation-of-%e3%81%84%e3%81%84%e3%82%88%e3%81%86%e3%81%ab), it can either
mean "like/as good" (ie. "in a good manner") or "in such way that (to achieve
one's own) good." I don't know which meaning fits in this context.

I know that 高校を出る means "to graduate from high school." But when だけは replaces
を, how the meaning change? "graduate _only_ from high school"? I'm confused
what は is doing after だけ. If I interpret it as a contrastive は, then it makes
だけ redundant. Is it a topic marker?

This is how I understand the overall meaning of this phrase

> No matter how you do, just graduate from high school for your sake!

Did I get it right?
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2021-04-20T08:38:14.833
86246
2021-04-20T10:21:32.790
42101
question
grammar nuances
Understanding どう転んでもいいように高校だけは出ておきなさい
# いいように

ように here means "in order to". So your second interpretation is correct.

# だけ vs だけは

I personally don't differentiate between contrastive and topic marker for は,
so I don't know how to answer that question but, だけ means "only", whereas だけは
means "if nothing else". In this case,

> 高校だけ出ておきなさい

would mean "Finish up to high school only (do not go to college, or anything
further)". While,

> 高校だけは出ておきなさい

would mean, "If nothing else, finish high school (whether you go to college
after that is not important/out of the scope of this conversation)".

So the whole sentence would be something like

> If nothing else, finish high school, so that you can keep your options open.

(I'm assuming どう転んでも refers to the listener's prospects after high school.)
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2021-04-20T10:21:32.790
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answer