rant-like remarks

[lauradi7dw]

Ever since it came into use, I've hated the expression "dumb down" (or its variants). I hate the book series "[Whatever] for dummies." After a lot of thought, I bought a copy of "Tai Chi for dummies" from a used bookstore (so the publisher didn't get any more profit from me) and tore off the cover, peeled down the spine, and cut out all of the front matter that mentioned the corporation. I bought it because it should more accurately have been titled "Clear line drawings of people doing different parts of the Yang 24 form" and that's exactly what I wanted. What is the point of insulting your potential readers, and why do people let themselves be insulted? Lack of background knowledge about a subject is exactly that, not stupidity.

I often think that people who use the dumb down expressions are just puffing themselves up by talking in a condescending way about other people. If one is talking about a school curriculum, for example, try to be clear about the real objection. Is the perceived problem actually that students are not required to learn as much math/read as many hard books as the speaker wants? Say so, and maybe give an reasons why the background is needed, instead of talking about dumbed down curriculum.

Simplifying an explanation is exactly that, so why not phrase it that way? It also seems to me sometimes that what is called dumbing down is mostly leaving out the jargon used in a particular field, or worse, trying to translate jargon incorrectly into common English.

A couple of weeks ago I asked mollishka for an explanation of dark matter vs mond in short easy words (ie no jargon) with no math. This may be impossible (especially the no math part), but I don't think she'd call it dumbing down, whatever she tells me.


A somewhat related thing from Mary Pipher
http://www.uuworld.org/life/articles/5707.shtml?lj

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[callyperry.livejournal.com]

Our favorite title: Self-esteem for Dummies.