Re: The (long) real thing, etc.

[hawthorn@badlands.nodak.edu (Joan Hawthorne)]

Regarding Cliff's comments about the academy being part of the real world:
Yeah, it is.  Especially for people who work there.  But my son is very
eager to be ready to enter the "real world."  He means adulthood, as defined
by professional work.  Everything else seems preparatory, somehow (although
the perspective of age tells me that life isn't divided into "preparation"
and "real life").  

And there's another conflict.  Academics don't like to think of
colleges/universities as primarily about preparation.  Those of us who work
here  generally think of the academic experience as important in and of
itself, not merely as a stepping stone.

Anyway, I think that's where the terminology might be rooted.  But I'll
admit it doesn't account for the military example.

Joan Hawthorne
Univ. of North Dakota