When I taught graduate students, I did talk about the submission process– these were students who aspired to be professional writers, after all, and as you point, professionalization is something people need to be taught. I don’t think these discussions really discouraged experimentation and risking failure– I can think of at least one student who was quite experimental with his work even while his classmates may have focused on more conventional essays and memoirs (he’s gone on to have several of his “micro-essays” on Twitter published in Creative Nonfiction, interestingly enough).

With the undergrads I teach now, I don’t really talk about publishing– not in the workshop, anyway. Just earlier today, though, I met with a senior English major with grad school ambitions and did suggest to her that an essay she’s presenting in her capstone project might be appropriate for Brevity’s upcoming VIDA-edited “all-women” issue. But I wouldn’t really encourage most of my students to submit stuff– workshops can create enough anxiety; getting a form-letter rejection could break a developing writer’s heart.

I do think that serious student writers should consider audience, though I think requiring them to submit their work to a magazine or journal is just kinda cruel. Instead, I tend to organize a student reading to coincide with my school’s annual undergraduate research conference. I tend to invite all of my creative writing students from that year (or, occasionally, years previous). Usually, I can count on four or five fearless souls to step up and present their work. These are the students who are thinking about writing as a profession, and I think the experience is valuable for them. The undergraduate who is taking the class to improve her writing skills or to fulfill a humanities requirement, though, probably doesn’t need the stress.