seriously though

[Chris Sinha]

Dear Susan,

> I think this is a serious problem. That is, research on various aspects of
> child development, and developmental psychology, is so badly
> misrepresented in the press. On the other hand, too many of us have
> too much disdain for writing things that the general public will and can
> read.  Then we are, understandably, outraged when information gets so
> mangled.

You are right, of course, but it is not the fault of the media that our
field (specifically of course language acquisition) is very divided in its
basic approaches. Since we can't agree on what's the case, how are
the media to present it?

This does not of course absolve the media from a general tendency
towards dumbing down. But the desire for simple answers to complex
problems is exploited not created by the media. And in fact there do
exist intellectually serious general interest outlets, though whether
journals like the New York Review of Books are for the "general
public" is another matter.

 > Is there some way we as a group can address this problem productively.
> Every time I see an article in the New York Times (like the one about a
> year ago concerning the decrease in recess time at many schools) I go
> haywire thinking of all the research being funded and carried out that
> seems to have little or no impact on daily practice in homes, schools,
> and day care centers.

The real problem with education (at least in the USA and UK) is that
it is a political football and politicians are not much interested in
research results. Anyone who eg in Britain hoped that the New Labour
government would develop an imaginative education policy must have
been sorely disappointed. But this is of course true not just of
education...

> Any suggetsions for ways we can talk about this, and think about possible
> solutions?

Well some people seem to get their act together quite well. At the
moment Evolutionary Psychology (reductionist and far fetched stretch
neo-Darwinism) is a big intellectual fad both in the USA  and in
Britain, where it seems to have the ear of the government policy
wonks. Not an accident I think. But if (like me) you find this
depressing and both politically and scientifically disturbing, and
you want to do something about it, you must be prepared to get into
a fight with some pretty tough and pretty smart characters. And to do
that you better have some good evidence and arguments to back your
own case up. And isn't this argument going on already? If only one
side of it gets really picked up in the media, this is probably
because the other side (that's us cognitive linguistic-socio-cultural
developmentalists folks) is not getting it's own PR act together.

Finally, maybe all of us should also keep reminding ourselves that it
is actually possible that our intellectual opponents are right and we
are wrong. I do want debate and argument and an acknowledgement that
there is more than one game in town, but let's remember that argument
should NOT be war, feud and character assassination.

Best wishes
Chris