It does seem to be the norm for interesting things to be presented in a boring way, rather than the exception. I'd guess this is partly because it's difficult to explain concepts clearly in the first place, let alone make the explanation engaging...
Hypothesis: If writing educational material is like throwing a dart, you have a bigger target if you aim for just "clear" — if you aim for "clear ∩ engaging" you have less chance of being "clear".
size(clear ∩ engaging) < size(clear)
I think time pressure would come into play with this. If you have the time, you can hone in on the "clear ∩ engaging" zone; but if you are pressed for time you just aim for "clear" which you'll hit more quickly.
And if you're really pressed for time (and/or uncaring), you might aim for "passable" rather than "clear"; something that your colleagues would OK, but that isn't particularly great. This is a larger target than "clear".
A bigger issue would be that a course isn't presented to a small group of kids who need to be engaged ("shaken by the shoulder" as the author says), it's for the whole class, including:
- kids who're already engaged, though aren't studying on their own and need some bare explainations
- kids who don't want to be engaged and won't be anyway
- kids who could be engaged depending on some other factor that no other kid cares about
Teaching to a class of 30+ kids means you can't take any extreme bet on what will work as a teaching method, and going for the most energy efficient way is a good practice in general.
Hypothesis: If writing educational material is like throwing a dart, you have a bigger target if you aim for just "clear" — if you aim for "clear ∩ engaging" you have less chance of being "clear".
I think time pressure would come into play with this. If you have the time, you can hone in on the "clear ∩ engaging" zone; but if you are pressed for time you just aim for "clear" which you'll hit more quickly.And if you're really pressed for time (and/or uncaring), you might aim for "passable" rather than "clear"; something that your colleagues would OK, but that isn't particularly great. This is a larger target than "clear".