The role of a
teacher is to prepare students for the real world outside of school. These
include other skills rather than just reading, writing, math, and fact about
the solar system or how many bones are in the body. With this methodology of
teaching, students come with a “helpless” mentality and expect the teacher to
simply teach them a new “school skill.” And because of this, many teachers
teach to this school skill rather than to life skills. In life we don’t
encounter having to write a persuasive essay daily but we do have to face
difficult decisions. These decisions might come in the form moral dilemma,
facing racism, or interpersonal skills to help someone other than yourself.
The more teachers
set up this illusion of “this ‘school skill’ will help you later in life,” it
not only discredits the school system we have in place but destroys the creativity
that comes with real life problem solving. This leaves us with a conditioned
next generation that expects the answers to land in their laps just like the
information did in the previous 18 years of their life. This isn’t only a
disservice to the next generation of adults but to ourselves as we helped raise
a nation of people that do not find beauty in math or original thoughts that
can cause a revolution. These authentic thoughts are what gives life meaning.
Who are we to deny that right to students?
As English teachers,
we have the ability to enter endless amounts of worlds, problems, and
solutions. We have to use this gift as a tool to teach students to simply think
for themselves and as daunting as that might be at times, that is the only way
we can come up with new solutions to our ever-changing world.
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