Truthiness n
1. “truth that comes from the gut, not books” (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” October 2005);
2. “the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true” (American Dialect Society, January 2006)
Merriam Webster Word of the Year 2006
I wonder the extent to which truthiness reflects a status of candor of educators to each other and to people outside of schooling.
For example, it appears that statements that speak categorically negatively about No Child Left Behind, assert that teaching is an art, not a craft, and claim education equals schooling stretch their seed of truth into truthiness.
Hmm, perhaps these examples also serve as a step toward developing a schooling truthiness index. It might be fun to put one together. Does anyone else think so?