Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois © Bill Oliver 08 October 2006 Vol 5 Issue: #32 ISBN: pending Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt "Changes in Reading" This past week I received an e-mail inquiring if a cousin had my correct new e-mail address. I wrote back affirming that it was correct and told her to try it again. What I failed to notice was the ISP extension; a difference of dotnet vs dotcom. When I read her message I brought to that message what I wanted to see. Thus, I did not notice the difference. In fact I was probably the one that made the original error – after all, we use both so often. We often do the same thing in proof reading our writings. We know what we wanted to say and therefore read our writing as if it is there. In fact in all reading we bring to that reading all our experiences and read the written words the way we want them. Our children and most adults know almost nothing about history or geography. We and they cannot identify the state capitals. We cannot relate to any news item if we cannot identify it and locate it on our mental maps. The news is meaningless, unless we can relate it to our base or first hand knowledge. College freshmen are basically historically illiterate and seniors only slightly better with some knowing less than the freshmen. These folk do not have amnesia [historical amnesia]. One has to know something to be able to forget it. Therefore, they don’t have historical amnesia, but rather historical ignorance. Ask yourself, who followed Abraham Lincoln in the presidency? Ullysses S. Grant, right? And, if you don’t know, you can Gooogle it in seconds, so why do you need to know it? Well, there is much more to the understanding of history than mere facts. Facts are just the raw materials not fine tempered steel. To understand and know history requires study. For example, historical knowledge shows how governments were created [or overthrown], how forces gain strength and wain. Leaders need knowledge to exert responsible citizenship. “We hold these truths to be self evident ...”. What truths; where did that come from? It is deplorable when Ivy League college graduates lose 7.3 percentage points in historical literacy between their freshman and senior years. It is not old fashioned to expect people to know something about the writings that they read. Is it because we are so future oriented that we no longer utilize the past. Our future threats may well depend on our perception(s) of our past. Reading is more important today that it has ever been. Don’t be lulled into thinking that our technology will decrease the need to read. There is more opportunity to access text than every before in history – specialty magazines, books, newspapers and articles are on the increase, both on and off the internet. Before cable television, videos, iPods, etc, reading was a national pastime. Folks [and children] spent hours reading books. They used their imaginations and learned. With technology we have lost both the skill and passion to read. Good readers understand sentences and organizational structure of/in writing. They comprehend ideas, dice arguments, and detect implications. The have vocabulary, but can determine meaning from context. [Of course, also, there is the dictionary.] WordSmiths are usually good readers. Egalitarians must be dancing in the streets to read statistics that illustrate a decline in reading literature occurs across all ages, sexes, races, and ethnic heritage. A child being read to, in a matter of seconds, utilizes thousands of cells triggered by this experience. Existing connections in the brain are strengthened and as new cells form more definition and complexity is added to the circuitry which will stand in place for the rest of the person’s life. “I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.” This is a tough statement out of context. However, knowing who said it brings meaning, if you are well founded in reading and literature. What do you think about it – just reading it? Now what do you think about it, knowing that Gandhi said it? The audience, those receiving the broadcasting of the ‘media’, listened in isolation from one another. That is changing. The ‘little’ First Amendment machines, extend freedom of the press to more actors – they are the blogs. Once the radio/tv stations broadcasted to us – now podcasting gives us the radio and folks find uses only the imagination limits. I have been guilty of reading and brought to that reading so much of my own personal experience that the words I read had no relation to what my mind was imagining. That is being really lost in your reading. When I was an early teenager reading the Leatherstocking Tales I was there in the forests placing each footstep carefully so as not to make a sound. Oh, by the way, Grant did not follow Lincoln to the Presidency, it was Andrew Johnson. <grin> e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: * [http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2006/03/23/local/columnists/gelman/10005846.txt] Other sites worth visiting: Past articles are archived at: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/NEBRHeritage http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/NebraskaStories/archive.html http://www.olden-times.com/OldtimeNebraska/stories@11/s@e-archive.html Black Swamp Heritage Articles © Bill Oliver 10 September 2006 Vol 5 Issue: #28 ISBN: 1542-9474 Good Evening from the Black Swamp of NWoHIo, e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-WI nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: International arbitration may be defined as the substitution of many burning questions for a smouldering one. Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/OH-NW-HERITAGE/ http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/BlackSwamp/intro.htm