Often but, of course not always.

At prestigious research institutes the caliber of the Professors is amazing. Depending on the discipline you'll encounter levels of genius, practicality and multi-tasking.

A man I greatly admired literally directed 20+ projects simultaneously.. You'd walk up to him and his mind was like a computer. He'd stop for a moment, access the project you were doing in his mind and then say exactly what you needed to hear to deal with your obstacle.

These projects required external funding, typical $50K to $250K per project. He managed procuring and satisfying the funding organizations. The brilliance and of the man was other-worldly.

At my level, teaching at various community colleges, the vast, vast, vast majority of these people do not have a clue what typical life is like.

They work less then 40 weeks a year, less then 35 hours a week, after 6 years or so can't be fired, laid off or made significantly uncomfortable. They're paid $100K+, excellent benefits, often succeed in exempting themselves from social security payments, disability payments and have excellent retirement.

It is not unusual for a 45 year old instructor to have spent 40 of their 45 years either going to or working at schools.

They believe the life of "mainstream" people is beneath them, that they are under-paid, over-worked and under-appreciated. In most instances they have emotional/psychological/neurological/behavioral issues that would greatly limit their ability to perform in the 'mainstream'.

They believe they are superior and that they are not appreciated. Therefore they teach the students perspectives that elevate the world of the instructor and degrade the world of the non-instructor.

They are petty, small-minded, insular and have little grasp of nor appreciation of concepts like honor, valor and simple ideas we all learned (depending on our age) from watching westerns in the 50's: a man is as good as his word, let your actions speak for you, you've got to be able to look yourself in the mirror, etc

Half of the teaching load is done by sub-contractors who cost the school half of what it costs to use a full-timer. That's how they got me. However, I have only met one other instructor with any entrepreneurial experience, and few with any extensive life experiences outside of academia or research positions at industry or government facilities.

They tend to sneer at the concept of usability and applicability. They are certain that they are under-appreciated.

This is my experience dealing with a rigorous physical science. I shudder to imagine what they are like in the humanities, fine arts, etc.

However, they tend to know their specific subject matter, in terms of book knowledge, well.

You can learn a great deal at a good community college but the student has to know how to filter the signal to noise.

All of my experiences are in the SF Bay area. Perhaps other locales are better.

PS - I enjoy the part-time job as a supplement to my other endeavors and have finally found a department that allows me to teach with the rigor and pragmatism that is my nature. Academically it's an excellent department and the students have excellent transfer rates to top caliber schools. The personal integrity of some (less then half) of the instructors is good. But very few of them have a clue what life is actually like.