Well, it turns out there is a word for it–this strategy of control, which leads to an ironic optimism:<\/p>\n
The Word Spy – defensive pessimism<\/a><\/p>\n “A strategy that anticipates a negative outcome and then takes steps to avoid that outcome….”<\/p>\n Intriguing how this strategy reduces anxiety for some and increases it for others…. There’s the real lesson: the absence of an objective signification for any term, situation, strategy….<\/p>\n This term is a good fit for my “toolbox” approach to teaching. An important tool, here, for all those melancholy, back-door optimists.<\/p>\n Also: What uses could a dictionary like Word Spy be put to in teaching vocabulary in schools? Is there any way high schoolers could perceive and enjoy the fun of a dictionary like this (dedicated to neologisms), where the play and vitality and lability of language is uppermost….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, it turns out there is a word for it–this strategy of control, which leads to an ironic optimism: The Word Spy – defensive pessimism “A strategy that anticipates a negative outcome and then takes steps to avoid that outcome….” Intriguing how this strategy reduces anxiety for some and increases it for others…. There’s the … Continue reading The Word Spy – defensive pessimism<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reform-in-education","category-thoughts-on-teaching-and-learning","category-word-play"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonadonna.org\/sites\/wordpress\/bonadonna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}