Except from How School Screws Things Up For “Real Life” — from Michelle Martin (emphasis DSC)
What we really need to be teaching young people, if we truly want to prepare them for the “real world,” is that:
- Work and its problems are really ill-defined. Rarely are there “right” answers. More often than not we are having to make trade-offs that force us to choose between “bad” and “worse” or at least between “OK” and “less OK.” There are always going to be extenuating factors and issues that impede our ability to achieve the ideal, even in those situations that seem the most clear-cut.
- Sometimes hard work is rewarded. Sometimes it is not. Sometimes following the rules is rewarded. Sometimes it is not. The challenge is learning when to stop beating our heads against a particular brick wall where our hard work and rule-following is not working. When do we need to break the rules? When do we need to work hard at something else or somewhere else?
- Related to this, working harder isn’t always the answer. Sometimes we are in situations where problems go unsolved and issues are unresolved because of things that are entirely outside of our control. Sometimes there is no answer and we have to learn the lessons of patience and of moving to a new situation, rather than just buckling down and trying to make the best of what we have.
- There is no “light at the end of the tunnel.” There is just more tunnel. Some parts of the tunnel are darker and some have more light flickering in. But there is always tunnel and we are never sure what lies at the other end.
From DSC:
I don’t post this to hammer teachers. Everyday when I drop off my daughter to her school early (so she can feed the animals there), I thank the LORD for the teachers at that school and everywhere! Teachers are awesome!
I post this because it resonates w/ my experiences.