Academic Life

My son tonight brought me further close to earth in seeing how young eyes view academics. We were at the college and we passed a colleague on the green. When I told him that she "taught English", he responded: "People are cuckoo. That's easy....'hi', 'thank you', 'bye'". Clearly he simplified teaching English with speaking English [which isn't actually that simple either]. Still, it begs the question of how hard it is to understand the academic profession.

I have a great deal of respect for academics, for living a life devoted to furthering knowledge. Not only discovering new knowledge but also to furthering access to crucial ideas among the next generation. I have a great deal of appreciation for the demands of academic life, for the long hours of study and grading and writing. It is also a life that is hard to comprehend from the outside. People tend to think academics have it easy, often not teaching in the summer. But, most don't comprehend how much work goes into great teaching. And how that work often demands long, albeit nontraditional, hours.