The Downside of Literacy
We spend most of our time promoting literacy, but rarely think about its downsides.
One is that our memories are weakened. When I lived in Greece in the 1960’s, a waiter could take orders from a dozen people without a pad to write on. At that time, Greece was more of an oral society, especially in the villages. Ancient storytellers, griots, and historians memorized sagas and tales which might take over a day to relate. Could anyone you know do that? (Beowulf not written down until it had been told and retold for centuries.)
My cousin is one dissertation short of a Ph.D. in Philosophy, yet when I was walking with him the other day he told me he was functionally illiterate. “Haven’t you every heard that?” he asked — we have known each other for 60 years so I might very well have, but had not. Illiteracy, functional or because of a lack of education, is usually hidden. “How did you learn if you couldn’t read books?” I asked him. “By talking to people. That’s how I got through college and three years of graduate school, not to mention the rest of my life.” I told him about The Gutenberg Project, which could provide him with audio versions of great literature, but he seemed satisfied with his methods, and I don’t think he will investigate that. His life has been very rich without much reading.
Today, computers and cellphones do much of our remembering for us, weakening our memories still further.
Exercise: Ask your students to take out a paper and pencil. Recite 10 randomly chosen numbers between 1 and 10, being sure that they do not fall into a comfortable pattern, such as being multiples of each other. Wait a long breath between announcing each number. Then ask your students to write down the ten numbers. They should be able to capture most of them.
Ask them what their cellphone numbers are; their parents’ phone number; one other phone number of their choosing. They must be able to write them down instantly.
How good are their memories? Has literacy robbed them of some of their mental capacity?
This is an interesting point. I can remember taking an English course which required participation in class discussions. Talk about chaos.
Renee, I don’t understand what you mean when you say chaos ensued when the class had to participate in class discussions. Do you mean class discussions are a bad idea? Or that the teacher did not handle the discussions very well? What was your experience?