School is Not Real Life - Introduction

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In the past year, I've started many of my speeches by asking my audiences to repeat after me as I state, "School is not real life!" They usually chuckle and don't say anything, and I then lean forward and say, "I'm not kidding. Let's all say it together. School is not real life!"

Everywhere we turn we are lead to believe that school-and school success-is absolutely the most important thing during our children's childhood years. We are judged as parents according to how well our children perform in school, how well they behave, the grades they get, and whether or not we have taught our children how to "fit in" and do the work of getting good grades.

How many people recognize that "Best Practices" and "Standards" imply a one-size- fits-all approach to instruction that assumes that all children pretty much learn the same way, at the same speed, and at the same ages? How many of you are guilty of accepting and believing that one early task of the school years is to learn to get along with the other children their age? To whom does it occur that we really don't learn social skills from fellow 6-year-olds, especially those who may be our same age but are otherwise quite different from us?

When we grow up, do we choose jobs that hire only people our age? Do we rule out possible friendships because someone is a different age from us? I assert that teaching children by age makes about as much pedagogical sense as teaching children by height. Also, learning to follow directions and do what someone else tells you to do for 12 or more years does not lead to creative thinking or entrepreneurship, and yet our educational system is set up to allow teachers to grade our children on how well they comply, sit still, do the assigned work and turn it in, whether or not it makes any intrinsic sense for the individual child.

So, my subsequent columns will address many of the ways students vary from one another and how a good educational system would allow for these differences. It is my strongly held opinion that tweaking the current system is not the answer. Let's see if I make arguments and points that change more than a few minds.

-- Deborah L. Ruf, Ph.D.