And your comment on my blog reminds me of my own m...

2010-01-11T09:50:08.641-05:00

And your comment on my blog reminds me of my own military experience—entering the “real” Air Force as opposed to the one on my initial training base. I had attended Basic and Officer Training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and then was shipped to my “PCS”, permanent change of station, Shaw Air Force Base, in Sumter, S.C. for a duty assignment as a psychiatric social worker in the 363rd Tactical Hospital. I was looking forward to helping others in need but, as a white, liberal, young man from the Northeast, very leery about being stationed in the “deep south” just two years after the Civil Rights Act and one year after the Voting Rights Act. But things began to look immediately more promising when I arrived to check in at my duty station late at night on the Wednesday, January 10, 1967. As I was escorted over to my quarters and as I went outside and put my “cover” on, I was promptly told to “Relax, we don’t wear hats in the hospital area, and we don’t salute, and we don’t shine our shoes!” This was my first introduction to “the real Air Force” as opposed to the one I had learned about in my training.

In retrospect, I have to wonder about how our beginning college students first begin to experience “the real college” (or University) as opposed to what they have read about it or heard about it in our official organs of communication. And when they first realize this difference, is it more or less likely to be a favorable one? I also wonder what we would have to do to have more congruence between what we tell our students to expect and what they actually encounter.

This reminds me of when I was in the U.S. Navy. I...

2010-01-08T02:04:01.280-05:00

This reminds me of when I was in the U.S. Navy. In recruit traning, everyone said this, of course, isn't the "real" Navy, wait until be are assigned a to duty station. In class A school (not the real Navy) wait until we are aboard a ship. On a Destroyer (not the real Navy) the Aircraft Carriers are the real thing. On shore duty (definitely not the the real Navy). When my enlistment tour was over and upon reflection I probably was in the real Navy in every case. I only hope (as you do) that anyone who has experienced higher education knows what reality is and in fact there may be no generalizations for a perceived norm. For those not so experienced, I accept your challenge to inform them.

Comments on John N. Gardner Institute Blog: Happy Valley is Not the Norm

And your comment on my blog reminds me of my own m...

This reminds me of when I was in the U.S. Navy. I...