School vs. “Real Life”
Greetings,
Although this happened a few weeks ago, I believe that it was an important discussion for me as my outlook on school changed somewhat significantly. I had made a post where I referred school to “real life,” meaning what happens to students outside of school after graduation.
The grad student in charge of my TE 407 class, Brairthorn*, called on me to define what I meant by this statement, and to ask me one simple question. I stated that I meant that I viewed school as something artificial, where the expectations and punishments were unrealistic or not reflective of what will happen “in real life”. The example I put forth was the idea of tardiness and absences, and the consequences, after repeated occurrences, were detentions or suspensions. After I finished talking, Brairthorn asked me, “How is that really different than real life?” At that point, even though I stubbornly refused to announce it publicly, I realized how strange that line of thought was.
I mean, as another student put it, school isn’t as serious as “real life” but it certainly wasn’t as artificial as I thought it was. Indeed, that student continued, explaining how school was sort of a “proxy for real life,” meaning that the consequences were made more artificial in order to train students in how to act in society, or how to get along with society, without seriously doing harm.
