Dumbing Down with deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson was announced recently as the keynote for the fall DevLearn conference in Vegas. At the risk of becoming an outcast amongst my peers, I admit that I had not heard of him. I do watch some tv but not a lot and obviously I have not been watching or reading about “Cosmos” on National Geographic’s cable channel (http://www.cosmosontv.com/). So when I saw a “USA Today” special edition with him on the cover, I picked it up and found a kindred spirit It is not the astrophysicist part that attracted my attention as I have never been much for sci-fi nor the study of space overall (my brother tried to get me into it as “Star Trek” was his tv show — me? nope, but those triffids were funny). Neil deGrasse Tyson has a passion for people understanding science, recognizing its importance, and respecting the discipline. THAT speaks to me!! It particularly speaks to the part of me that is offended by “science standard” politics in my state but that is another blog.
In an interview section with deGrasse Tyson, he referred to the common phrase “dumb it down.” He said, “if you’re dumbing something down, they know that behind it is this subtext of ,’Well, I’m way smarter than you, and you’ll never understand it if I said it the way I would say it. So, let me see if I can simplify it for you.” (USA Today, Cosmos special edition, March 24-April21, 2014, pg. 24) He says you need to dig deeper in the subject for the right way to communicate it and a more interesting way to share it. I had a Sunday morning, shout out, kind of reaction to that.
I have worked with engineers throughout my career and hung out with loads of them at Purdue. They need to hire this man as their next commencement speaker. Young and old, many an engineer or technical person I have met has made an attempt with a little contempt on the side to “dumb it down” for the rest of us when we worked with them as subject matter experts (SMEs). I have watched the approach shut down learners in a room and instructional designers who could not deal with the underlining message. This is not all about them. It is about us Learning & Development professionals. Have we gone the lengths to help them understand why that does not work and that we need their great content to be shared in an “interesting way?” Or did we just request the content, moan about their lack of urgency for our project, and then watch as the light bulbs of connection never went off?
I use 4MAT design principles when working with SMEs. The instructional design model is a cycle they can understand and relate to in their own learning. ADDIE is the name of a great aunt they only see at reunions. They need from us a simple model to follow that does not leave our learners unconnected. Neil deGrasse Tyson gets learning. I will now be watching to see the methods he uses as an astrophysicist to connect science to the general viewer. You should too.