Chomsky uses the term concision to discuss the way mainstream media outlets respond to power. Having concision means that ideas which align with forces of power in our society need no explanation and those that do not align with those forces of power need significant explanation. This allows the narrative of the “state religion” to be told across the media, because it’s quick and easy since it needs no explanation. However, opposing viewpoints which need explanation take too long for a standard news segment or, in the current era, TikTok, and therefore do not get heard.
Think Traditional Education “Works”? Prove it
Now, the kinds of things that I would say on Nightline, you can’t say in one sentence, because they depart from standard religion. If you want to repeat the religion you can get away with it between two commercials. If you wanna say something that questions the religion, you’re expected to give evidence, and that you can’t do between two commercials, so therefore you lack concision so therefore you can’t talk. I think that’s a terrific technique of propaganda. To impose concision is a way of virtually guaranteeing that the party line gets repeated over and over again and that nothing else is heard.
Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky – Conversations with History – YouTube
“Concision” puts advocates at a disadvantage. We have to define all our terms. Thinking differently often requires speaking differently, so we end up sounding like we’re “from Neptune” (to reference Chomsky’s anecdote). That’s one reason we have the Stimpunks glossary. Each entry starts with a concise definition but then piles on the context.
For our Neuroqueering Learning Spaces project, we’re creating Why Sheets as suggested by Alfie Kohn.
I imagined a set of handouts, each consisting of a single (double-sided) sheet that responded to a common question. The idea was to lay out the case briskly, making liberal use of bullet points and offering a short bibliography at the end for anyone who wanted more information.
One of these “Why Sheets,” for example, might explain a teacher’s decision to create a curriculum based on kids’ questions. Or for setting aside time each day for a class meeting. It might defend helping students to understand mathematical principles rather than just memorizing facts and algorithms. Or it might lay out the case for avoiding worksheets, or tests, or homework, or traditional bribe-and-threat classroom management strategies.
The Why Axis – Alfie Kohn
In short, any practice that’s constructive yet still controversial would be fair game for one of these punchy handouts.
The Why Axis – Alfie Kohn
Why Sheets feel like a good balance of concision and explanation.
Students and families battling behaviorism and school induced-anxiety and exclusion need whatever resources we can give them.
We started a repository for Why Sheets on stimpunks.org.
Our first why sheets are on behaviorism and hoodies.
Contributions welcome. These will be licensed under an open license, perhaps Creative Commons CC0 so students and families can do what they want with the sheets, but we still have to talk about licensing with contributors.
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