One of the phrases that frustrates me most as a teacher always starts “but in the real world. . .”  I understand the idea, that you want to expose students to situations and problems that they will come across once they enter college or the world of work.  At the same time, I’ve always felt that such language actually diminishes the importance of what is being learned in high school, that “the world you’re living in now isn’t quite as real as the one you’ll get to when you graduate.”

Turns out that Henri Nouwen dealt with some of this in his book, Creative Ministry.  In his section on teaching, Nouwen asserts that such “real life” language and the culture it inadvertently creates is

. . . alienating because the eyes of the student are directed outwards, away from himself and his direct relationships into the future where real things are supposed to happen to him.  School, then, comes to be seen as only a preparation for later life, for the “real” life.  One day the classroom will at last be left behind, the books be closed, the teacher forgotten, and life can begin . . . It is not surprising, therefore, that many students are bored and tired during class and are killing time by anxiously waiting until the bell rings and they can start doing their own thing . . . [in such a setting students and teachers] have been pulled away from their own experiences; they are staring into the horizon expecting something to appear there, while at the same time they have become blind to what is happening right in front of them.

Imagine that and add in the ubiquity of the internet and texting and a 24-hour news cycle culture that says life is always going on without you.  Sobering thought.

I refuse to believe that teaching has to be this way, but I can’t help but believe that school’s are shooting themselves in the foot by using such language and creating such a culture.  It diminishes our teachers and short-changes our students.  The walk across the graduation stage does not have to be the shaking of the Etch-a-sketch or the rebooting of an operating system.  It has the potential to be so much more, a place of generation more than of alienation. It is a culture that Nouwen calls redemptive and actualizing.   That is a good hope, one I believe is worth pursuing.