The
thing that made the transition easiest was when I finally internalized
the idea that Everyone Is Faking It. No one really knows what is going
on. As a child you never suspect that the grown-ups in your life don’t
have everything wired. They must, they’re grown-ups. I think the trouble
with the puberty part of adolescence is you spend a lot of your time
assuming that at some point you’re going to figure everything out.
Things are going to become clear. You will hit a certain age and a key
will turn in your brain and suddenly life will make sense. I thought
maybe when I graduate high school. Maybe when I graduate college. Maybe
when I get my first real job. Never happened. Never got the cheat code
that illuminated Life and showed me the back doors and the ropes. Never
got to peek behind the curtain. Never got the software update.
The
only explanation is not that I didn’t get it. It’s that no one gets it.
I’m not a solipsist. All you other people exist. You’re walking bags of
meat, water, and electricity just like I am. If I didn’t get an
instruction manual, if I never got the download of Important
Information, then no one did. Everyone is faking it.
...
Those
two thoughts sprung a trap in my Teacher Brain than can never be
unsprung. Everyone is faking it and there are no rules. This changed
everything. I had that realization at around the same time I was really
getting good at the basic mechanics of teaching- Various types of
classroom discipline, how different instructional theories played in the
classroom, what worked for me and what didn’t. I was ready to start
making my own choices right at the moment I was freed by my twin
realizations. No one knows what they are doing and there are no rules.
So essentially you're saying here that once you realized that everyone was faking it, then that is, in turn, your peek behind the curtain and the download of important information is it not?
ReplyDeleteThe download window said, "All your software is up to date. You're on your own."
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