What is the difference between classroom and real world safety?

Answer 1

"Real world safety" as a phrase is often used to reference the practicalities of maintaining safe conditions and procedures in a world where you have to deal with people who have differing expectations and understandings of what is and is not "safe" or reasonable. It can also be used to reference a perceived need to pursue safety in balance with seemingly contradictory pressures such as productivity, personal choice, and personal responsibility.

"Classroom safety" can have two very different meanings.

In one sense, "classroom safety" is safety in a classroom or teaching environment where students may be working with drills, saws, blades, heavy objects, potential falls, flammable materials and flames, hazardous chemicals, etc. or where an instructor may wish to demonstrate a principle or procedure that could be hazardous to the instructor or the observers if not done correctly and with appropriate forethought. This is "real world safety" in an instructional environment.

In a second sense, the term "classroom Safety" is used to distinguish what is thought of as "ivory tower" theoretical safety from the practicalities of the "real world." While there is some validity in making such a distinction, it is more often used by safety specialists whose understanding is based primarily on on-the-job experience as a means of denigrating the value of the broader understanding available to the academically trained safety specialist.