Simplexity

[sabotabby]

Poetic Devices X, my current favourite blogger, made a new post, which in itself is cause for celebration. (Best line: "school culture is important and that there are various types of teachers, the most dangerous of all which are “reprobates” and “resisters”, which had I discovered this phrase earlier in my career would’ve been a great title for this blog. I would get it put on my business cards, but the board told me I’m not important enough to have any.")

In it, he mentions the newfangled term "simplexity," but admits that like most edu-jargon, no one has any idea what it means.

So I looked it up, and there is indeed a Wikipedia page for it, but I'm 99% sure whoever wrote it is taking the piss. Choice quotes:

"Jeffrey Kluger wrote a book about this phenomenon that describes how house plants can be more complicated than industrial plants, how a truck driver's job can be as difficult as a CEO's and why 90% of the money donated to help cure diseases are given only to the research of 10% of them (and vice versa).

The term has been adopted in advertising, marketing and the manufacture of left-handed screwdrivers."

...

"Like most terms, it has been shaped through dialogues and discussions, in much the same way that a camel is a horse designed by committee. "

The line between educational fads and outright parody is very blurry these days. 

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

I'm leaning toward parody, but only because of the camel.

[sabotabby]

I think so. But do the educational experts know it's parody?

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

There's a line?!?

[sabotabby]

Well, more of a gradient.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I just resolved, to make as much use of that term as I can when teaching the French Engrish (in Mollberg Speak, what else) like today.

Then; I'll explain further...they already think I'm a communist (post coming up on the er...: subject, sort of) butt this is so much better.

[sabotabby]

Oh my. I'm not sure if it's a term that should be encouraged.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

Off topic: Recently a discussion on a different post lead me to recall this article which is fortunately online. I read it out loud to Deadend Margo and beyond the Chicago nostalgia it brought up so many different thoughts, not just about the central topic, but all the issues involved (what we'd now call intersectionality), Oprah when she was a local as well as a national phenomenon, the journalistic voice and style of the article (the way the author takes it as a matter of course that college age people can embody both youthful stupidity and grownup political thinking) and how this provides much perspective on modern "Social Justice Warrior" behavior (and how upset one should or should not be about it). It also inspired conflicting feelings about how this is available to all online yet at the same time entirely invisible. I'm considering a long post about it, but I need someone else to read it and tell me if it actually seems that interesting.

[sabotabby]

From a brief skim (during the workweek, I'm not likely to get to the whole thing), it seems quite interesting. Particularly if you look at antiracist culture of the 80s and 90s and SJW culture; having been involved in ARA back in the day, I feel like many of the Kids These Days don't grasp lessons that we learned the hard way, and maybe know a few more things that we never learned.