The Notion of “Schooliness”

Clay Burell, over at his always-provocative blog entitled “Beyond School,” recently posted this riff about the idea of what he calls “schooliness.”  Although difficult to define, schooliness is found in those moments when you recognize that there’s an uncomfortable gap between the skills taught in school and the skills needed in the real world.

Clay defines schooliness in the area of writing as follows:

“Schooly writing (noun): Assignments by teachers who don’t want to read them, to students who don’t want to write them; a perpetual and unnecessary misery upon which hinges the student’s future, and the teacher’s present, livelihood; an oxymoron.”

To add to that, I would offer some Famous Schooliness Quotes:

• “Train A heads east at 30 mph, and train B heads west at 40 mph…”
• “Imagine a frictionless pulley system…”
• “All of the words on Friday’s spelling test will follow the ‘oa’ vowel pattern.”
• “I like the way Johnny is raising his hand.”
• “OK, but that isn’t the answer I was looking for…”

I conclude with a great definition of schooliness that someone left on Clay’s blog: “Schooliness – Preparing students for challenges and careers that don’t exist yet by teaching them about challenges and careers that don’t exist anymore.”

We must find a way to bridge the gap between the real world and the way we do school.

Commentors: what Famous Schooliness Quotes have I forgotten?