> ========================
>
> Subject: Early reading, was Re: Criticism and a few corrections.
>
> > I homeschool my own children, and it was because their
> > reading skills were being neglected that I took this
> > decision. To me, reading develops the mind in a way that a
> > non-reader cannot even comprehend. Yes, I believe that it
> > develops the mind in a superior way to the same information
> > ingested through film or television, but this may be my
> > particular bias.
>
> > What do other members of the list feel?
>
> Blessed words, Chas!
>
> The follow up question would be: why so many people don't read,
> don't learn to read and aren't interested? But unfortunately it's
> off-topic, and I already see Ms Stumbaugh frowning on me for having
> brought it up. (Please don't feed me the reading-impaired and
> learning-impaired bit: I have the nasty suspicion that it is an excuse to
> call support staff to do the work that should be done by a no-nonsense
> teacher. Very few kids understand the need to learn the three Rs, which
> they need to learn anyway!)
>
> Nicola
>
This is perhaps a bit off-topic, but it doesn't have to be. I could
easily imagine a science-fiction or fantasy author writing a book
involving this topic. Anyhow, Chas is correct in that reading develops
the mind in a way that is special. Moreover, today's Western societies
are biased towards a mind that is developed through reading. However,
this is not always the case. Literature in medieval culture, for example,
is passed primarily through the oral tradition and only secondarily
through a written tradition. This does not mean that the medieval mind is
not developed. It only means that the medieval mind is developed along
very different lines. For example, people had a much better memory in
general (it appears). It also affects the method of reading--e.g. since
reading meant reading aloud, spelling did not matter that much so long as
the pronounciation is correct. An extraordinarily good book that deals
with this subject is _The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval
Culture_ by Mary Carruthers (Cambridge University Press, 1990). Does
anyone know of a work of fiction that looks at alternative modes of
memory? I would be really interested in reading such a book.
Eric Hung
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