Grapheme clusters, a.k.a.real characters
Rick Johnson
rantingrickjohnson at gmail.com
Wed Jul 19 17:51:28 EDT 2017
On Tuesday, July 18, 2017 at 10:07:41 PM UTC-5, Steve D'Aprano wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Jul 2017 12:10 am, Rustom Mody wrote:
[...]
> > Einstein: If you can't explain something to a six-year-
> > old, you really don't understand it yourself.
> >
>
> [...]
>
> Think about it: it simply is nonsense. If this six year old
> test was valid, that would imply that all fields of
> knowledge are capable of being taught to the average six
> year old. Yeah good luck with that.
Again, as was the case with your Toupee Fallacy a few days
ago, you've got it all wrong. The implication of that quote
was _not_ that six year olds are the "final arbiters of
truth". LOL. The implication is that explaining anything to
a six year old is not an easy task. Therefore, a teacher who
lacks a deep understanding of the subject matter could never
hope to properly educate a six year old student. And if you
don't believe me, consider the lesson of this famous quip:
"The blind leading the blind". ;-)
> But even if we accept this, it doesn't contradict the
> Mencken quote. I can explain the birds and the bees to a
> six year, at a level that they will understand. That
> doesn't mean that (1) I am an expert on human reproduction;
Since when is a biology degree prerequisite to informing a
six year old that babies are the product of "mommies and
daddies"? (at least "historically speaking") Of course, in
the not-so-distant-future, babies will be the product of
"science and farming". Hmm. Which, incidentally, is a
wonderful segue into the subject of evolution!
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