Thinking about Student Teaching: The ‘Real World’

At the university I attend, before you can student teach you have to apply a year in advance so they can figure out which region you will be teaching in. Although you can put in your top two preferences, the ultimate decision is out of your hands. As per my advisor’s suggestion, I applied for student teaching Fall 2018 back in March even though the deadline was September 30^th of this year. At the time, the decision seemed so far away. Now it’s here. Although I got my top pick, it’s intimidating. I know many student teachers feel unprepared and unqualified, even though they are actually well prepared and qualified. Despite this, it’s scary to think that in less than a year I will be teaching high school students. Even more heart-pounding is that in less than two years I will have my first ‘real world’ job.

I use the term ‘real-world’ with extreme reluctance, because I don’t believe that high school or college or any stage of life is less ‘real’ than another. In my media literacy class on Wednesday, we were attempting to discover how to define what is real. It isn’t an easy question to answer. Because even if you say it’s what you experience with your senses, your senses can often be wrong. I’m sure many people have been in a dream where they saw, smelled, touched, and heard things that seemed real in the moment, but then they woke up. So in that way high school and college students have experienced the real world as much as anyone else. But I know that isn’t what people mean when they talk about the ‘real world.’ Generally, my experience is that people use the term when they are trying to make it seem like you’ve had it easy and now it’s about to be difficult. All those times you screwed up before? They will now become devastating. Anytime you were given grace before or a deadline was moved around? That won’t happen anymore. Unfortunately, intentional or not, the way that teachers, coaches, parents use the term the ‘real world’ implies that high school and college actions and problems are inconsequential.

To those still in high school: Yes, college is more difficult than high school. Just like middle school was more difficult than elementary school, and high school was more difficult than middle school. Yes, you will have the awesome responsibility of managing your own time and setting your own schedule. But notice that I said ‘awesome’ responsibility. If you plan ahead, work hard and diligently, as well as intelligently and not absentmindedly, you will not only survive; you will do great. Don’t let people scare you out of entering college, which some consider the ‘real world’ and others scoff that I would even dare to say that. I have gone to college, entered my major, moved off campus, have my own apartment, work a part-time job, pay for electric, and cook my own food. I haven’t died yet. I may not be in the ‘real world’ according to some people, but I’m more in it now than I was in high school. That is if we pretend that the concept of the ‘real world exists, and I’m not sure it does.

How does this tie in to student teaching? Well, even though I watched bacon diligently every second in fear it would burn yet still managed to burn the bacon, I can now cook my own food every day. Even though I used to feel sick when I spent 20 dollars, I can pay for my own groceries, gas, and electric with no problem. Therefore, even though I feel unprepared and unqualified for student teaching in the fall, I can do it and excel at it. This doesn’t mean I won’t mess up, but I’ve learned that every step I’ve taken into the ‘real world’ looked a lot scarier than it actually turned out to be.

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Image Credit: Tim Parker “Murphy High School” Taken on October 21, 2012