Students in the Real World, 1-1

Young people are often told that they must obtain an education to prepare for "the real world." This common expression is considered useful when one wants to make a point, but there are many things wrong with it, so many that it is impossible to offer a complete list here. So we must be selective as to what we will say about it, and keep the discussion relevant to our topic.

One major problem with the expression is that, in a context like ours, it is almost never used to distinguish the real world from something that is unreal. Instead, the distinction is made between one part of the world and another part of the world that is just as real. If education prepares people for the "real" world, then what world are the student living in right now? Are they living in an imaginary world? Even a dream is a real dream – it occurs in the "real" world. But school life is more than a dream. The expression makes a distinction that is based on perceived significance and permanence, and not the ontology of difference realities. Thus it is misleading; in fact, it can contribute to a disastrous mindset.

Since it is used in various contexts, and since those who use it are careless and imprecise (otherwise they would not use it at all), the expression has a range of meanings. In any case, a person is surely mistaken if he calls a part of the world "the real world" in contrast to another part of the world that is just as real. Perhaps most people have never considered the expression, and they use it because of custom. However, besides this explanation, there is certainly also a measure of arrogance behind it – one is so centered on that tiny part of the world that he lives in or cares about that he refers to that alone as the "real" world. The truth is that if we would number all the infants, students, monks, peasants, the whole rural population of China, and all the people excluded by the expression, we will find that the "real" world is in fact so small that most people – real people – are not living in it.

There is an important implication for theology. It is often asserted that Christians are called to engage the culture, so that it is unbiblical to withdraw from the "real" world. If there is a sound idea behind this, it is obscured by the terrible expression. What exactly is this "real" world that we are not supposed to withdraw from? Monasteries are as real as anything, and hermits can live in real caves and shacks. Is it sinful to be a farmer where the closest neighbors are miles away? Is it necessarily unbiblical to be a researcher way out there at the South Pole? Things are not more real just because you are closer to the city or financial districts.

A thinking person would not be swayed by an admonition that rests on such an expression (or the idea implied by it), because he perceives that the one who speaks this way is self-centered, condescending, and not very intelligent. Whether he uses these words or not, he urges others to engage "the real world" when what he means is that they should enter his world, the very tiny area in which he functions.

To call life after school the "real" world is an insult to students. It is to minimize their significance, struggles, responsibilities, and accomplishments. School is the real world. By the "real" world, parents often refer to the period of life when their children have finished school and would begin to make their own income. Thus the children discover that their parents' whole conception of reality is based on making a living – only when one has reached this stage does life really starts to happen. Those who are able to think a little deeper then begin to despise their parents' counsel on life. Insofar as the way that these parents talk reflects how they truly think, it is hard to blame the children for losing respect for them.

As I address those of you who are students, I am not going to tell you that what you are doing has significance because you are preparing for the real world. No, you are in the real world now – you have been in it since you were conceived. It is true that you are preparing for the next major phase of your lives, but you are not just preparing – you are living in the real world now.

Of course, even those who do not use the expression can commit the same error as those who do, and that is to measure the significance of a period of life relative to the generation of income, or any other arbitrary or unbiblical standard. Scripture demands us to regard every phase of our lives as significant, because it is lived before the sight of God.

On the one hand, this means that we must acknowledge your accomplishments and not minimize your struggles. But on the other hand, it also means that we must insist on your responsibilities, requiring from you right thinking and right behavior now, and that we must call attention to the ramifications of your actions for both the present and the future. In other words, wherever you are in this world, you are Christians living in the real world.