I Need an "Oh Poor Baby"

[EvB]

I really hope to NEVER have anther semester like this one.  I don't understand it, but it seems that once you get beyond a bachelor's degree - no one speak English anymore.  Worse - it's deliberate; it's a way of circling the wagons around your discipline so that not just ANYONE can get it and run with it.   And, it's fucking obnoxious.

Etienne Wenger describes "reification" as the act of turning something
(ideas, thoughts, etc.) into physical form (language, text documents,
etc.).  Reification has two distinct consequences. First, it organizes
abstract ideas and directs our attention in ways that allow us to share and
adapt ideas between people, time, and space. Second, it restricts the
interpretation of ideas because it is an inherently limiting process that
inadequately conveys the nuances of lived experience.  Do learning theories
and empirical research seeking to explain cognitive processes follow the
same benefits and drawbacks of Wenger's notion of "reification?" How can
teachers use academically reified theory to improve their students' learning
experience in the classroom?

This is one of the more simple and straight forward pieces of CRAP writing I have to deal with.  And now i haveto go say something intelligent about it. It's not that I don't get it.  It's that the language makes me wanna say "Yeah?  So what's your point?"

[MV/Liberace!]

i just am appalled by the degree to which the education establishment is in love with its self and what it does.

[EvB]

i just am appalled by the degree to which the education establishment is in love with its self and what it does.

I wish it WERE just Education. My son dropped by tonight - he is also in grad school.  His field is communications.  His adviser is always going on about how they KNOW MORE - IOW: are SPECIAL.  Jared (my son) said last week he snapped - and told the guy (who he mostly likes) that he was full of crap.  That they were jerking off to their "special" language - and that many - if not most - would understand them and what they "know" perfectly well if they didn't' speak in code.

The young man is his mother's son - DAMN I'm proud!

[MABUSE]

I wish it WERE just Education. My son dropped by tonight - he is also in grad school.  His field is communications.  His adviser is always going on about how they KNOW MORE - IOW: are SPECIAL.  Jared (my son) said last week he snapped - and told the guy (who he mostly likes) that he was full of crap.  That they were jerking off to their "special" language - and that many - if not most - would understand them and what they "know" perfectly well if they didn't' speak in code.

The young man is his mother's son - DAMN I'm proud!

The old adage was "Knowledge is power", that is only true any longer in a convoluted, abstract and occultic form.  Now-a-days Language is power--if you know the proper PC-Biz-speak manipulation du jour, it is like some linguistic masonic handshake and opens the doors of power.  Control of language, imagery and interpretation scares the hell out of me.  I recommend three books with the utmost fervor and zeal" "Death Sentances". "Why Business People Speak Like Idiots"  &  "The Commisar Vanishes".  Pardon grammer and spelling, I am drunk as a lord...its been a damned bad week.

**M**

[MV/Liberace!]

"Why Business People Speak Like Idiots"

oh shit.  i'll bet that's a great read.

[EvB]

"Death Sentances". "Why Business People Speak Like Idiots"  &  "The Commisar Vanishes"

I'll be looking for those - thanks M

[Marc.Knight]

I really hope to NEVER have anther semester like this one.  I don't understand it, but it seems that once you get beyond a bachelor's degree - no one speak English anymore.  Worse - it's deliberate; it's a way of circling the wagons around your discipline so that not just ANYONE can get it and run with it.   And, it's fucking obnoxious.

This is one of the more simple and straight forward pieces of CRAP writing I have to deal with.  And now i haveto go say something intelligent about it. It's not that I don't get it.  It's that the language makes me wanna say "Yeah?  So what's your point?"

I find it mildly amusing that the standard definition of 'reification' is attributed to an individual in the excerpt you provided.  This implicitly assumes that [he] has qualified the concept in some way, which is not the case.

Explicitly, higher education and research activity necessitates disciplined use of language to convey specialized concepts which are not normally considered by the vast majority of people.  For example, if we use the word 'reify' in a sentence rather than the phrase: 'to treat (an abstraction) as substantially existing, or as a concrete material object' then we are vastly simplifying our conveyance of a concept with one word instead of using 13 words.  The same practice is found in the simplification of equations in mathematics.

From that small example you provided, I can deduce that you are being exposed to some very interesting authors and thought.  You will succeed wonderfully, as I know you have the intellect to not only comprehend the material, but to expand well beyond it. 

PW

[EvB]

I find it mildly amusing that the standard definition of 'reification' is attributed to an individual in the excerpt you provided.  This implicitly assumes that [he] has qualified the concept in some way, which is not the case.

Explicitly, higher education and research activity necessitates disciplined use of language to convey specialized concepts which are not normally considered by the vast majority of people.  For example, if we use the word 'reify' in a sentence rather than the phrase: 'to treat (an abstraction) as substantially existing, or as a concrete material object' then we are vastly simplifying our conveyance of a concept with one word instead of using 13 words.  The same practice is found in the simplification of equations in mathematics.

From that small example you provided, I can deduce that you are being exposed to some very interesting authors and thought.  You will succeed wonderfully, as I know you have the intellect to not only comprehend the material, but to expand well beyond it. 

PW

Well - as for attribution, it just turned out to look like that since the flavor of the day when that was written was Wenger.

As for the rest, you're right of course that specialized fields of study often require specialized words.  But people get carried away - sometimes to the point where people using the word or words often can't tell you, in plain English (even using 13 words) what the term MEANS.

Sometimes - when you can trace the development of a term back closer to it's source - it's both more clear - and funny! 

Part of the origin of 'reification' - as I understand it - comes from Carl Marx' looking for an English word to describe what happens when a resource becomes a commodity.  He used "thingification."  Now THAT I like!  >grin<

But thanks for a more positive spin on my current torment.  I just hope someone will shoot me if I start talking like these writings in day-to-day life.

[MV/Liberace!]

I just hope someone will shoot me if I start talking like these writings in day-to-day life.

no need to hope.

[EvB]

no need to hope.

Awwww . . . sweet.  I knew I could count on you!