The school version versus the real version

Things get more interesting when you share your reflections. (Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay)

School is compulsory and not necessarily aligned with our areas of greatest strength or interest.

Often, doing the minimum required to reach your goals is a reasonable decision.

And doing the bare minimum to pass is understandable.

The problem comes when we don’t know how to give more than the minimum, even if we want to. We become so conditioned to parrot back answers or get things over with as quickly as possible that we struggle to go deeper, even when giving more is what would actually help us to reach our goals.

I see this very clearly in the way prospective teachers fill out job applications. When I ask, “Please tell us about your teaching experience,” I commonly get answers like, “Twenty years of experience in public and private school.” That’s nice, but that’s it? You don’t have a single story to tell? No specifics? No link to a YouTube video where you introduce yourself?

Such candidates are giving me the “school version” of their work instead of the “real version.” In the school version, you say what your teacher wants to hear, avoid revealing anything about who you actually are and what you actually believe, and satisfy the requirements on only the most superficial level. You try to get the right answer as quickly as possible.

But the real version is potentially an opportunity to connect and share. It’s for you, not some teacher with a red pen. You get to develop your ideas for your own benefit, telling your story any way you want. In the case of a job application, that may be the way that’s most in alignment with the culture of the institution you’re applying to. Or it may be resolutely your way, regardless of who it’s for: “Take me or leave me.”

There are no rules — only choices. There’s no right or wrong approach; instead, it comes down to what you want.

There’s nothing wrong with being direct and succinct. The problem comes when the short, quick answers are fundamentally incomplete. Are you answering the question in the spirit in which it’s being asked, or are you answering it as though you’re in school, providing no context or detail? To do the latter is a missed opportunity.

You are much more likely to get what you want if you have the wherewithal to advocate for yourself. If you have practiced sharing your ideas in many contexts, this is easy and natural. That’s why, at the schools I have founded, students are given questions and writing prompts that encourage “real” answers instead of just “school” answers. Instead of filling out worksheets, they are creating a body of work consisting of their own ideas, in their own words. This gives them the tools to continue developing and contributing their ideas, not just in school, but in the world.

The adult who filled out the “Please tell us about your teaching experience” question with the one-word answer, “Preschool” may be an amazing educator, but I’ll never know. She missed her chance to tell me about it, and both of our lives stay smaller as a result. I’d love to hear the “real” version of her answer, not just the “school” one.