How Do We Learn Real-World Stuff?

This morning I found a letter to the editor of The Montage, the newspaper of the St. Louis Community College - Meramec, written by Gwendolyn West, a non-traditional student there who is mad as hell. What's Gwendolyn's problem? She's tired of being docked points for missing classes when a child is sick when she otherwise gets A's on her work. In contrast, younger, traditional students expect and get points for going through the motions, being "coddled" as Gwendolyn puts it, regardless of their performance.

This is not a new complaint about the current college generation. I've heard it attributed to helicopter parents who have taken care not only of all of the details of their child's education, but continue to be involved in the kid's corporate job. This absolutely floors me.

The question becomes, "Are we doing our kids a favor by holding their hands well past the age when they should be responsible themselves for living in the real world?"

I'm with Gwendolyn. Our primary job as parents and educators is to teach people how to live responsible, productive, satisfying lives. How do we do that? By providing the knowledge they need to go out and do it all by themselves. Knowledge is evident in understanding, performance, and behavior, not in points.

One of my favorite Japanese sayings: Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.

That's how we learn in the real world. We try. We fall down. We learn. We fall down. We keep learning until we stand up.

Thanks for speaking out, Gwendolyn. I'll be curious to know how far the ripples flow from the stone you've thrown.