Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
The End of Literacy? Don't Stop Reading.
I'm moving house this week and with that comes the necessary and tedious task of putting away the books into boxes. While getting ready to leave for work today, I decided that it was better for me to send back some of the library books I'd borrowed before moving. The only challenge was that I've had these books since early Januaary and haven't gone halfway with any! Still they will have to be returned. My default thinking is that I need to consume & process the daily feed from the web, TV and newspapers as the books will always be there anyway. This thinking needs to be challenged.
Then, during my lunch break, I came across an article by Howard Gardner, a Harvard professor of the Multiple Intelligences fame. In the brilliant Washington Post piece he makes the case that books may not always be here.
Two aspects of the traditional book may be in jeopardy, however. One is the author's capacity to lay out a complex argument, which requires the reader to study and reread, following a circuitous course of reasoning. The Web's speedy browsing may make it difficult for digital natives to master Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" (not that it was ever easy).
The other is the book's special genius for allowing readers to enter a private world for hours or even days at a time. Many of us enjoyed long summer days or solitary train rides when we first discovered an author who spoke directly to us. Nowadays, as clinical psychologist Sherry Turkle has pointed out, young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time; periods of lonely silence or privacy seem toxic. If this lust for 24/7 online networking continues, one of the dividends of book reading may fade away. The wealth of different literacies and the ease of moving among them -- on an iPhone for example -- may undermine the once-hallowed status of books.
The ability to achieve a fine balancing act in making sense of information and improving literacy will be to think of and adapt to media as they were, are and will be.
In Prof. Garner's words, "maybe there's a technology, just waiting to be invented, that will help us acquire this invaluable cognitive power"
I really hope there is.
Note: The title of this post was borrowed from Howard Gardner
Then, during my lunch break, I came across an article by Howard Gardner, a Harvard professor of the Multiple Intelligences fame. In the brilliant Washington Post piece he makes the case that books may not always be here.
Two aspects of the traditional book may be in jeopardy, however. One is the author's capacity to lay out a complex argument, which requires the reader to study and reread, following a circuitous course of reasoning. The Web's speedy browsing may make it difficult for digital natives to master Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" (not that it was ever easy).
The other is the book's special genius for allowing readers to enter a private world for hours or even days at a time. Many of us enjoyed long summer days or solitary train rides when we first discovered an author who spoke directly to us. Nowadays, as clinical psychologist Sherry Turkle has pointed out, young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time; periods of lonely silence or privacy seem toxic. If this lust for 24/7 online networking continues, one of the dividends of book reading may fade away. The wealth of different literacies and the ease of moving among them -- on an iPhone for example -- may undermine the once-hallowed status of books.
The ability to achieve a fine balancing act in making sense of information and improving literacy will be to think of and adapt to media as they were, are and will be.
In Prof. Garner's words, "maybe there's a technology, just waiting to be invented, that will help us acquire this invaluable cognitive power"
I really hope there is.
Note: The title of this post was borrowed from Howard Gardner
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Return of the blog
Stuff really happens when I want to restart my blog after a rather long break. Having typed up some 'beautiful' prose, I accidentally delete it all. But I will soldier on. In the words of the song - "I have decided to ..., no turning back, no turning back"
The only reason why I am back at it today is due to Folasade's yabs. While I might hate to admit it, any other explanation will amount to an untruth.
These are her exact words - " what are you going to do with all these things you are reading"? And over these past months, the end of my academic pursuit hasn’t doused the need to feed my eyes and mind with pages of ink on paper. So much was the craving that I’ve had to go join a library to take the place of my expired student library card. While Folasade’s question might have a hint of altruism to it, I notice that the fervour with which she voices it increase whenever I make the mistake of using any of my books, magazines or newspapers to ‘disorganize’ the tidy arrangement that her room usually is.
So what have I been reading and more importantly, what I have learned that might be useful for sharing?
A quick look into my bag reveal these titles that I’m pouring through at the moment.
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (An insightful book on Congo)– Micheala Wrong
The Trouble with Africa – Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working – Robert Calderisi
Here’s an excerpt that caught my eye this morning from Calderisi’s book. In it he quoted an Ivorian journalist who said
“This continent is really cursed. We may even have to accept that Africans are a bad copy of the human race. We always make ourselves look ridiculous in the eyes of others. What have we done for our Creator to have poured such uncompleted beings into these green spaces. We can only wait for evolution to change us. Until then, all we can do is cry…”
Now before the comments start rolling in accusing me of sharing his sentiments. I make it clear that I don’t. In the midst of the gloom, there is also hope. But he only seems to echo the anger and frustration that many from Cairo to Cape Town face. One of such was this angry post I read on Funmi Iyanda’s blog after her encounter with Lagos Police.
"Policeman: where are you coming from?
FI: work, we just dropped off a friend and are going home.
Policeman: So why you dress like this?
Bose and FI: like how?
Policeman: (shouting and waving a copy of PM News) una no hear wetin Fashola (gov of Lagos) talk abi? Una no hear?
FI: (keeping tight rein of rising bile and anger) hear wetin?
Policeman: (jabbing his finger at us and spitting the words out with disgust) na so una suppose dress, why you dress like this?
FI: what do you mean? This woman here is a doctor, a mother and wife, this is her husband.
Policeman: If na married woman why she no dey her house, all these useless women! "
She concludes
The only reason why I am back at it today is due to Folasade's yabs. While I might hate to admit it, any other explanation will amount to an untruth.
These are her exact words - " what are you going to do with all these things you are reading"? And over these past months, the end of my academic pursuit hasn’t doused the need to feed my eyes and mind with pages of ink on paper. So much was the craving that I’ve had to go join a library to take the place of my expired student library card. While Folasade’s question might have a hint of altruism to it, I notice that the fervour with which she voices it increase whenever I make the mistake of using any of my books, magazines or newspapers to ‘disorganize’ the tidy arrangement that her room usually is.
So what have I been reading and more importantly, what I have learned that might be useful for sharing?
A quick look into my bag reveal these titles that I’m pouring through at the moment.
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (An insightful book on Congo)– Micheala Wrong
The Trouble with Africa – Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working – Robert Calderisi
Here’s an excerpt that caught my eye this morning from Calderisi’s book. In it he quoted an Ivorian journalist who said
“This continent is really cursed. We may even have to accept that Africans are a bad copy of the human race. We always make ourselves look ridiculous in the eyes of others. What have we done for our Creator to have poured such uncompleted beings into these green spaces. We can only wait for evolution to change us. Until then, all we can do is cry…”
Now before the comments start rolling in accusing me of sharing his sentiments. I make it clear that I don’t. In the midst of the gloom, there is also hope. But he only seems to echo the anger and frustration that many from Cairo to Cape Town face. One of such was this angry post I read on Funmi Iyanda’s blog after her encounter with Lagos Police.
"Policeman: where are you coming from?
FI: work, we just dropped off a friend and are going home.
Policeman: So why you dress like this?
Bose and FI: like how?
Policeman: (shouting and waving a copy of PM News) una no hear wetin Fashola (gov of Lagos) talk abi? Una no hear?
FI: (keeping tight rein of rising bile and anger) hear wetin?
Policeman: (jabbing his finger at us and spitting the words out with disgust) na so una suppose dress, why you dress like this?
FI: what do you mean? This woman here is a doctor, a mother and wife, this is her husband.
Policeman: If na married woman why she no dey her house, all these useless women! "
She concludes
"…I didn't sleep that night nursing my injured dignity and wondering if l wasn't doing my daughter injustice by raising her in a society that so denigrate women. One where a policeman is resentful of the educated and hateful towards women".
That Journalist’s question and the answer to it will bring me to my next point…tommorow. Before I go, The photograph is of Residents scooping fuel from a fallen tanker at Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria yesterday morning. PHOTO Credit: EMMA OSO, TheNewsng.com
This blog has returned!
That Journalist’s question and the answer to it will bring me to my next point…tommorow. Before I go, The photograph is of Residents scooping fuel from a fallen tanker at Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria yesterday morning. PHOTO Credit: EMMA OSO, TheNewsng.com
This blog has returned!
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