Humphrey's Gift Guide, 2014 Edition

Such an insightful book by Sarah Lazarovic (below)! This year, Humphrey strongly suggests making something special for your loved one - maybe cookies! Maybe a poem! Maybe and up-cycled squeaky toy!

Policy is so basic

Ironically, neoliberal and neoconservative agendas stress “back to basics” education under the guise of common sense (something that raises Humphrey's suspicion!). In popular vernacular, “basic” has come to be an insult to criticize a lack of originality in thought and action and/or consumption patterns.
 

Humphrey observed that “basic” officially hit the mainstream when Mindy Kaling dropped it on last week’s episode of The Mindy Project, and further evidenced by the existence of a Wikipedia entry explaining it. Its emerging popularity is aptly described in New York Magazine, “Basic rolls beautifully off the tongue. It’s a useful insult. Like trashy or gauche, it derives its power from the knowledge [of recognizing] someone or something as basic.”

 In humans, basic typically takes the form of pumpkin-latte-swilling, j.crew-leggings-with-Uggs-wearing, Taylor-swift-listening women. The insult lies in calling out the individuals for uncritically acquiescing to trends, participating uncritically in the worst forms of conspicuous consumption, appearing bland, focusing on unserious or frivolous things that exemplify the banality of late capitalism. Popular manifestations of the "basic" insult - especially in the form of Buzzfeed Quizzes and lists - also characterize basic people as "the epicenter of drama" yet they protest with claims such as "I'm not mean, I'm honest" while simultaneously "setting up enough subplots" through "passive-aggressive memes" to stir up controversy for months.

Humphrey has a problem with J.Crew in spite of members of his household who frequent that excessively basic establishment.

So how are contemporary education policies basic? The evidence according to Humphrey is clear:

1. Epicenters of drama: contemporary education policy is now well-known for being situated in manufactured crises (in Ontario, Minister John Snobelen even used those words! Crisis talk seems to be everywhere) to justify education policy. The manufactured crises always start by some kind of inaccurate social problem definition followed by an erroneous claim that education policy might will solve it. "We're not mean," the policy rhetoric implies in a way so very consistent with basic-ness, "we're just honest, stating objective facts!" Humphrey's favorite examples of "mean" policy crises happen to be financial literacy policy and entrepreneurial education, which both rely on dramatic, truthy claims. But there are dozens and dozens of other examples, including the entire Race To The Top policy in the United States! 
2. Inescapable predictability: predictability follows trends that are exemplified in "policy borrowing" (see this, this, and this) and increasing reliance on NGOs who attempt to drive policy, such as OECD, resulting in globalized education policy (also true of  financial literacy policy and entrepreneurial education). Policy borrowing is problematic in itself and the complexities are too numerous for Humphrey to unpack in this blog entry. But consider this metaphor ... the comeback of the legging was marked by massive production by mass-market retailers (like the highly basic J.Crew). The advertisements feature tall, slim models and snappy catalog copy to tempt women to get themselves into some leggings. If popular culture is to be believed, wearing those leggings is a main feature of the basic consumer! Yet, leggings simply don't work aesthetically for all people - few have the ideal proportions of the models in the ads and catalogs that are required for a perfect legging fit. That's the problem with policy borrowing. The policy that "fits" in one region (which has its own unique proportions, culture and context) may not be the best choice for another. But thanks to a number of forces (including and especially NGOs!) regions are snapping up the trendy policies in very basic fashion, with little consideration of their appropriateness. Ironically, some of the political rhetoric actually uses the term "back to basics."
3. Uncritical participation in neoliberal, consumerist marketization and financialization: The most troubling part of the “basic” policy cultures is that they “look into the abyss of continually flattening capitalist dystopia” instead of “grappling with the fundamental principles that have wrought this system." Neoliberal language and policies tend to focus on “the market,” privatization of public goods, and emphasize competition and choice so that policy is reduced to issues of privatization, career-focused education, and accountability through testing and other measurable indicators, often with punitive consequences in place for under-performance (e.g., funding tied to high-stakes test scores) (see this for details). More troubling is that "the neoliberal project developed its communications capacity to facilitate the task of gaining public consent, it used increasingly sophisticated professionalized public relations strategies borrowed from the private sector."
   An incredibly interesting development is way in which "basic" policy mirrors the conspicuous consumption in "basic" human activity in the form of privatized policy development. Rather than formulate policy "the old fashioned way," governments are increasingly purchasing policy services from private-sector interests (paralleling mass-market retail consumption)! This conspicuous consumption used to be called "hidden privatization", but Humphrey no longer believes it to be any secret (for example, see this, this, and this). 
4. Insistence that they are not basic and better than others: Despite obvious conformity, basic policy cultures insist they are unique, and actively engage in attempts to prove they are better than others. Take, for example, Ontario Ministry of Education's assertion that, "Ontario's publicly funded education system [is] acknowledged as one of the best in the world" (in the 2014 "Renewed Vision for Education in Ontario"). Yet, despite achievements in the system, the rhetoric and policy fail to attend to the many important critiques coming from the research community - and consistent with points 1, 2 and 3 in this blog entry - fail to take take seriously issues of context, culture, social justice, and the perils of politically-driven policy with no consideration for evidence or complexity.

Humphrey hopes that education policy will someday come to a realization that "basic" is not best. He still has hope that policy-makers might take up more democratic processes that could truly transform education from the basic to the extraordinary. He signs off as he has to go and shame his humans for contemplating a trip to the Gap on this snowy afternoon.

Humphrey Channels Chevy

Boo!
It was tough to top some of Humph's previous Halloween disguises (this, and this). This year's costume choice came after a lot of contemplation.
He really wanted to be a "casino capitalist," in homage to (Macmaster's own) Henry Giroux's book, Zombie Politics in an Age of Casino Capitalism, but he had a bit of trouble visualizing that. He could have pulled out his old JR Ewing disguise (yes, he has one!).
He thought and thought. And thought.
Then, he realized that Land Shark, a 1970s Chevy Chase SNL character might do the trick. After all, it was a chilling statement on the perils of succumbing to greed and consumerism! The victims would typically answer the door in hopes of receiving a candy-gram, only to be devoured by Chase's land shark.

Not Ready for Prime Time Canine: Humphrey channels Chevy Chase!

For anyone interested in Giroux's thesis, have a listen below to his interview with Bill Moyers...