I often question my ability to get students ready for the “real world.” Now don’t start getting all teacherish on me and start saying that the real world is now, or we all live in the real world, etc… I mean that first true experience in the business world, or as an entrepreneur. How many teachers have ever had a job other than teaching? How many teachers have a second job in the “real world” that takes their mind out of academia and into finance, construction, government, sales, or running a restaurant.
I have often joked with folks that every five years teachers should have to work as something other than a teacher for a year.
Many teachers I know went to school, worked as the camp counselor, and now teach. School is not the real world. We segregate people by age, ability, stay on task for 45 minutes at a time, do work that is for the garbage can, rarely get to talk freely, etc…
Just like you can never figure out what it is like being a teacher by just being a student in a school, you don’t know what it’s like to be a doctor by being a patient, or what it’s like being chef by eating in a restaurant. How can teachers get kids ready for the real world if they are simply consumers and observers? Do you have to be apart of the “real world” in order to properly prepare someone else for it?
Be nice…Just thinkin’…
Alvin Toffler has recently advocated for teachers to spend time in the working world outside of the education realm. If interested, you can read more about that here: http://www.edutopia.org/future-school
Personally, I think that’s one thing that I will be able to bring to the classroom having worked in several different environments prior to returning to school to become certified as a teacher. Even when I was in high school I questioned my teacher’s knowledge in that realm. Sure, some of them worked a part-time job while in college but beyond that the vast majority had not experienced a traditional work environment for an extended length of time. In all honesty, there are many differences between the working world in education and the working world that is found in many corporations.
At the risk of being stoned by the teacher fraternity, I must agree with your suggestion. The education system cast teachers in a mold that affects their view of the world. A stint in the real world would help them to avoid developing (and get rid of) a teacher mentality.
I truly believe in that real world, and the world of education is NOT it. I worked in industry for 13 years and have many friends still working out there and they will tell me that I don’t work in reality. Most of them would not do what I do, even for the good pay (I earn very good money as a teacher due to a very good union) and the few weeks off in the summer. Those summer weeks are getting fewer each year. When I started teaching, I got 12 weeks summer vacation. This year, 9 weeks. You don’t get that anywhere but academia. But, it’s still not enough for my friends who hear of my school experiences and cringe.
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I think one of the ways to get students ready for the “real” world is to try to constantly bring in examples or references to their world. For example, in math, one of their assignments is to go home and find out how their parent, grandparent, babysitter, neighbour used fractions that week. Another thing we try to do is Math trails so they can see the math out in the world. If we’re reading a short story, then one of the questions is, Why is this story relevant to your life? How does it relate to what you experience and know now?
Thanks for the question. It’s important to keep in mind that our students will eventually have to fend for themselves in the cruel environment of the real world. I also think that having students reflect on how they can make a difference once they get into that world is also really important. If there’s something they don’t like about the way the world works, what are they going to do about it?
Thanks for opening up on this topic.
I’m a 3rd career teacher, 61 years old and 8 years in the classroom. I draw constantly on my other lives a parish priest and a construction & engineering professional. Sabbatical year should be the year when the teacher does ‘something else’.
-Skip
“How can teachers get kids ready for the real world if they are simply consumers and observers?”
It’s too easy to retort “hey – forcing and/or conniving kids to sit quietly in a room full of desks all in nice neat rows, memorizing facts and getting *high scores* IS the real world! get over it!”
But if the person “in charge” requires that the students ask questions, demand proofs, and develop personal responsibility – those students will be better prepared for the world outside the classroom than we ever dreamed possible.
Our problem of course is that it’s much easier on (1) parents, (2) institutions, and (3) students to form a rigid structure, a rigid curriculum, and a rigid mechanism for evaluation. Rigidity eliminates the need for analysis and review.
Heaven forbid the community should demand responsibility and evidence of understanding from the “teachers” as well as from the “students”. It’s the GPA that counts, right? Students’ intellectual involvement is much too difficult.
I seem to have forgotten what I planted in my garden. Can one of you help me identify what’s out there?
Paul,
I wrote about my own thoughts on this very idea several weeks ago here: http://billgx.edublogs.org/2008/06/11/staying-relevant-in-the-classroom/
I’m a big believer in faculty internships as a way of staying relevant in the classroom. As a teacher in information technology, I think it’s especially important. Sometimes it is difficult to find something appropriate in the summer. It took me several years until I found a summer IT job with the phone company, but it was a great reminder to me exactly why it is that I do what I do. The world outside of academics is different, and not necessarily always in a better way.
You joke about teachers needing non-education experiences, but I think it would go a long way to improving education.