Chapter 3 Continued

Happy Independence Day everyone!  I hope that you are enjoying a safe, enjoyable holiday with your friends and family.

I must start this post with an apology.  In the previous blog entry I entitled it, Chapter 3: The Birth of an Alphabet.  In actuality, the complete title is, The Birth of an Alphabet and Socrates’ Protests.  I chose to include the information about Socrates in a separate post because I believe it to be interesting and parallel some thinking in the 21^st Century, but aside from Socrates being Greek, I didn’t really see how it fit in with the information about the alphabets, hence the necessity to include it in its own entry.

Socrates is regarded as one of the most influential minds history has ever seen.  This is reflected by every college student who reads and reflects on excerpts from his many teachings and conversations.  The Socratic method of thinking is still referenced in almost all aspects of professional life from business to education.  But if he had his way, texts of his dialogues would not exist.  In fact, he spoke out against written text and worried that it would be the downfall of civilized life.

His concerns can be summarized into three objections.  The first was that Socrates believed that there was an inflexibility of the written word.  He believed that anything written can be taken for reality.  In the first entry for this blog, I elaborated on my concerns for the validity of information that can be posted on the internet.  Essentially, Socrates had the same argument, that false information can be printed and many people might take it as fact. 

At the time that Socrates educated the youth of Athens, the oral language was spoken in such a way that phrases, stories and lessons could be easily memorized and recalled with even greater ease.  Historians make note that this was accomplished by the language itself being constructed with rhythm and rhyme whenever possible.  Socrates believed that by turning oral traditions into written texts, the ability to recall information would be lost.  This was his second objection.  As will be described in later posts, not everyone is equipped with the capacity to remember and recall information as easily others.  Therefore, I believe that adapting oral tradition into a written form was necessary for the good of all mankind.  Thankfully, Socrates student Plato thought along those same lines and rebelled against his teacher and began writing everything down to preserve Socrates’ works.

The third objection that Socrates had to written text was that he believed that there would be a loss of control over language.  “Once a thing is put in writing, the composition, whatever it may be, drifts all over the place, getting into the hands not only of those who understand it, but equally of those who have no business with it;…”  On this objection, I could not disagree with the man more.  Information, however it is presented, written, oral, spoken, or etched on stone tablets is the property of all who want to take part in the distribution of knowledge.  It should not be kept for a select few.  Maryanne Wolf goes on to defend this objection by saying that Socrates believed without proper context information can be dangerous.  However, hearing it from Wolf without any references to Socrates works, one is left to speculate if this is what Socrates meant, or this is Wolf’s interpretation.

We find ourselves in a time in our culture where we are faced with similar objections with regards to the technology available to us.  There are members of our society who believe, like Socrates, information sharing made as accessible as it is, will cause more problems than create opportunities for learning.  As Socrates said thousands of years ago, without context, information can be dangerous.  These same arguments are being made today.  However, as educators it is our job to explicitly teach our students how to find their own meaning in text.  It is our job to guide them to go beyond what is written, typed or said and realize that the only way to process information is to make it meaningful for themselves.

Everything changes, especially with information and education.  As the means of distributing and receiving information changes, what makes a person literate in any society or culture doesn’t.  As long as that person can successfully manipulate the socialization processes to fit it within their own lives, they will become fluent in any Discourse or academic literacy presented to them making them successful, literacy minded members of society.