Can I point out a massive hypocrisy without being ostracised for a moment?

Good

One thing that really grinds my gears is when teachers use the phrase, “We need to prepare them for life” when describing their reasoning behind an action that could be seen as unfair in practice. In fact, the student often calls it unfair but because we are adults and they are children, we just repeat the same line of thinking about “life.”

If we are truly preparing our students for life, then shouldn’t we get rid of all the things that are not like real life? Homework, for example, is one of those things that most people will not deal with in “real life.” Unless they are going into academia, there are not a lot of jobs out there where you will find yourself doing homework. Generally, when you leave the job, you are done for the day. Sure, you might work some long hours some days, or you might end up with a job that works 12-hour shifts like medical staff, but at the end of the day, you still go home and relax.

There are many other examples of why school is not real life. So can we please stop saying this turn of phrase whenever our students are doing something wrong and we don’t want to give them another chance? Or when we want them to do something differently. Or really just anytime.