The Real Real
Originally Published April 2023
The RealReal. It’s a luxury consignment shopping site that promises “real” designer products - not fakes. According to the UrbanDictionary, the term “real real” implies complete seriousness. And the word real itself means “existing or occurring as fact; actual rather than imaginary: being an actual thing; having objective existence; not imaginary” (Dictionary.com).
As the end of the school year and graduation for seniors approaches each year, I would often say, “It’s about to get real real, real fast.” Meaning that life is going to change for students in very real and tangible ways as they end a 13-year journey through compulsory education.
It can also get ‘real real’ today, in every classroom. We know that our most vivid and impactful learning comes from experiences. Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “Tell me, I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Learning is accomplished primarily through doing. And that is why inquiry-based and experiential learning are on the rise and so important for students. In fact, my last district before I retired was a career and technical school. It’s all experiential and the increase in enrollment in career technical education over the past few years is evidence that students want, and need, that type of learning experiences that truly involve them.
And I have had the opportunity to observe the impact that true experiential learning in “real world settings” has on students. When students have the opportunity to go beyond reading about a skill and observing a demonstration, to literally doing the work themselves, that is when learning takes place. Why? Because experiential learning involves multiple senses. In fact, in the field of language acquisition, there is an instructional method called TPR - Total Physical Response. This is a method of learning a new language in which physical movement is used to teach vocabulary. It is highly effective because it is based on how children learn their first language.
The point is that we learn best by doing. It engages students in meaningful ways. It’s also more fun and rewarding!
When students have the opportunity to experience learning in a real world ways, it is more impactful and lasting. A colleague and friend who was part of the awesome work of Harvard’s Project Zero used to say that in schools we often teach about. We talk about this and about that. But we don’t often ask students to experience the content. When we do, it’s real.
It is real real!
