Why Gen-Y Johnny Can't Read Nonverbal Cues

An interesting essay by Mark Bauerlein of Emory University in the September 9th, 2009 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Why Gen-Y Johnny Can't Read Nonverbal Cues.

His observations on the importance of context in communication ties to the earlier post quoting E.D. Hirsch. Bauerlein focuses on the physical context of communication whereas Hirsch addresses the knowledge context of communication but they amount to the same issue - how do we effectively and efficiently communicate? and the conclusion that there is a lot more context there than simply decoding the words.

Back in 1959, anthropologist Edward T. Hall labeled these expressive human attributes "the Silent Language." Hall passed away last month in Santa Fe at age 95, but his writings on nonverbal communication deserve continued attention. He argued that body language, facial expressions and stock mannerisms function "in juxtaposition to words," imparting feelings, attitudes, reactions and judgments in a different register.

This is why, Hall explained, U.S. diplomats could enter a foreign country fully competent in the native language and yet still flounder from one miscommunication to another, having failed to decode the manners, gestures and subtle protocols that go along with words. And how could they, for the "silent language" is acquired through acculturation, not schooling. Not only is it unspoken; it is largely unconscious. The meanings that pass through it remain implicit, more felt than understood.

None are undeservedly remembered

via "Reading: An essay" by W.H. Auden

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

Explaining science fiction to women

Megan McArdle is one of my favorite bloggers/essayists and I make a point of visiting her blog at least weekly. Partly it is that, while generally writing about economics and policy, she not infrequently veers onto other topics completely, but ones that are still amusing or intriguing. Another reason that I like her site is that the quality of her commenters and their comments tends to be distinctly a cut above average.

In 2008, McArdle had this post about Explaining science fiction to women which was entertaining anyway but the comments were almost equally so.

As every book reader knows, there is no accounting for taste and some of our closest friends just will never grasp our love for a particular book, author or genre. As one of her commenters puts it, "Vive la difference requires difference, no?"

The Babees Book

As was mentioned in an earlier post, the concept of children, as distinct from infants and adults was only a relatively recent development, at least in the West. Before the Enlightenment and certainly before the Renaissance, there were only two stages of human development; infants who were wholly dependent on adults, and adults with a child being judged to have graduated from infancy to adulthood around seven years of age. Consequently, the concept of children's books as we think of them is also a relatively recent development.

It is intriguing though, to go back to that period of time when concepts were changing. I came across The Babees Book, written sometime in the 1300s in Britain and later translated from Latin. Intended to be a useful instrument "for youre lernynge" to be used by children of the aristocracy serving as pages at court, it might conceivably be considered to be among the first children's books as it is clearly intended to be used by and for what we would now call children.

I am fascinated by the pragmatism it represents in terms of manners and the basics for interacting with the rest of the social group as well as by the longevity and similarity to other instructionals such as George Washington's The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, or even more recently such as Priscilla Napier's recollection of her childhood instructions (see post An exo-genetic path of evolution). There is a very recognizable continuity over some eight hundred years both in tone and substance. Here are some of the early lines in The Babees Book

If any speak to you at your coming, look straight at them with a steady eye, and give good ear to their words while they be speaking ; and see to it with all your might that ye jangle not, nor let your eyes wander about the house, but pay heed to what is said, with blithe visage and diligent spirit. When ye answer, ye shall be ready with what ye shall say, and speak "things fructuous," and give your reasons smoothly, in words that are gentle but compendious, for many words are right tedious to the wise man who listens ; therefore eschew them with diligence.

Take no seat, but be ready to stand until you are bidden to sit down. Keep your hands and feet at rest ; do not claw your flesh or lean against a post, in the presence of your lord, or handle anything belonging to the house.

Given the research of James Heckman highlighting the critical role of non-cognitive skills (manners, behavior, values) in terms of life and academic success, I can't help but consider just how far our educational achievements might soar were most children to enter school with some modicum of the manners and wisdom packed into these early "children's books".

He has to pretend that he enjoys olives or War and Peace a little more than he actually does

via "Reading: An essay" by W.H. Auden

A child's reading is guided by pleasure, but his pleasure is undifferentiated; he cannot distinguish, for example, between aesthetic pleasure and the pleasures of learning or daydreaming. In adolescence we realize that there are different kinds of pleasure, some of which cannot be enjoyed simultaneously, but we need help from others in defining them. Whether it be a matter of taste in food or taste in literature, the adolescent looks for a mentor in whose authority he can believe. He eats or reads what his mentor recommends and, inevitably, there are occasions when he has to deceive himself a little; he has to pretend that he enjoys olives or War and Peace a little more than he actually does. Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitation which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity. Few of us can learn this without making mistakes, without trying to become a little more of a universal man than we are permitted to be. It is during this period that a writer can most easily be led astray by another writer or by some ideology. When someone between twenty and forty says, apropos of a work of art, "I know what I like," he is really saying "I have no taste of my own but accept the taste of my cultural milieu," because, between twenty and forty, the surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it. After forty, if we have not lost our authentic selves altogether, pleasure can again become what it was when we were children, the proper guide to what we should read.

E.D. Hirsch and Cultural Literacy

I finished reading E.D. Hirsch's seminal Cultural Literacy a couple of weeks ago and have been mulling. I like that kind of book - the kind that you either have to read in short chunks because it is full of interesting ideas, information or perspectives and/or which take a while to digest.

Published originally back in 1988, it is a book with a particular agenda (improving opportunities for all children) and a particular thesis (there is a broad cloud of half known information that any member of a culture needs to have an awareness of in order to be fully functional in a particular society) and upon which Hirsch has built a literary and foundational infrastructure (Core Knowledge Foundation).

I instinctively agree with Hirsch's central thesis - For any group of people, there is an array of often unidentified knowledge which represents a common core which allows members of that group to communicate efficiently and effectively with one another and which core differentiates and sets them apart from others. The corollary is that those individuals who are not privileged with that core knowledge suffer in their ability to interpret what others are communicating and in turn have difficulty making themselves understood with the result that the greater their knowledge deficit the greater their marginalization.

My personal belief is that that great cloud of folk tales, fairy tales, fables, aphorisms, folk sayings, etc. is a foundational part of such core knowledge.

Hirsch has done yeoman's work in trying to identify what is that core of unstated knowledge which is critical for all young Americans to acquire in order to fully participate in our society and in order to take advantage of the fullest range of opportunities that present themselves. He has attempted (with others) to construct a portfolio of this knowledge. He is not trying to create a curriculum per se. He is very clear that much of this core knowledge necessary for cultural literacy is in fact often only half known or understood. It is really a portfolio of concepts and allusions, not a portfolio of facts. An American History class would require some very specific factual knowledge about the American Revolution and George Washington. Cultural literacy would require that most Americans ought to comprehend an allusion to George Washington and the cherry tree.

Hirsch also recognizes that the portfolio of core knowledge, the elements of cultural literacy, is subject to on-going evolution and there are some elements that are to some degree time-bounded. References to Gilligan or Spock might convey much to one generation but not to another.

Hirsch focuses most of his effort on determining how the portfolio of core knowledge can be incorporated into schools and lesson plans. To some degree, I don't think he is wrong but I do not think that is the route of greatest probable success given just how localized our educational system is. I think the better answer is that it is up to parents to ensure that their children are absorbing this type of soft knowledge at home through much conversation and reading. Hirsch has written a series of books that support just such an effort starting with What Your Preschooler Needs to Know through to What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know.

I am full of admiration for the effort this must have taken and Hirsch's perseverance. I think, though, that this may be a little bit off-putting and a mis-direction. There is a whiff of this becoming another chore, another task, another critique of schools and teachers, etc. The most committed parents and those with lots of resources can take this on as a project to be worked. But for most it would be a challenge. I think there is an easier, much easier way. That is to mesh the core concepts which Hirsch has identified with good children's story books. As an example, per Hirsch, children in Kindergarten ought to know about seasons and weather - Read Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day with your child or Tasha Tudor's Around the Year. These are fun reads and the latent knowledge, the cultural literacy, is an incidental useful artifact transmitted while enjoying a read-together. The more I think about it, I am inclined to create such a list - for every topic area that Hirsch identifies, identify the existing children's stories which convey the core knowledge.

Hirsch writes well and has many nuggets of information and insight which I will be posting on over the next couple of months. I would recommend E.D. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy as a book well worth reading and mulling over.

What's that? <em>Rem acu tetigisti.</em>

Rem acu tetigisti. From Jeeves in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse. Conversation between Jeeves and Bertram Wooster.

"Precisely, sir. Rem acu tetigisti."

"Rem ------?"

"Acu tetigisti, sir. A Latin expression. Literally it means 'You have touched the matter with a needle,' but a more idiomatic rendering would be - "

"Put my finger on the nub?"

"Exactly, sir."

"Yes, I get it now. You have clarified the situation. Getting right down to it, these two old buzzards have got to foregather in secret and require a hideout."