Hi Phil and all,
In response to Phil's comments about the connection between orality and
writing, I just couldn't resist offering a tidbit from one of the English
classrooms I visit as a special education teacher.
The students were asked to perform an 'oral' piece as an assessment item.
Their lessons consisted of writing down their 'oral'.
When assessment time came around, the students had to hand the teacher their
written 'oral' and proceed to deliver 'it' in front of the class. Students
also had a copy of their 'oral' in their hand. Most recited it by having
learned it by rote and constantly looking at 'it' to remember the words.
Students were severely marked down for looking at their written 'oral'.
Regarding the student that I was supporting with the 'oral', I had discussed
the idea of her not writing hers down as she had practised (outside class
with me) only relying on her oral memory and performance devices. The
teacher said she would have to write 'it' down or she would fail. I asked
why and he said it was for marking purposes.
Once she did this her oral delivery in practice became stilted and 'read'.
She delivered it word for word as on her written 'version' by memory (she is
autistic and has a photographic memory).
On performance day a few others went before her and I noticed that in the
marking process the teacher was marking them down severely for relying on
their written script. Just before the student I had been supporting went
'on', I took her copy from her and told her to "Do it from your head". She
became very nervous but delivered it and got top marks for not referring to
her written piece. The funny thing was that it was an exact version of what
she had written down and absolutely nothing like the great oral performance
she had given in practice before the writing of 'it' was imposed upon her.
Regarding the teacher's comment about the written version being 'for marking
purposes', I think that this relates to the need to provide accountability
for the Head of Department. Of course you couldn't rely on a teacher's own
judgment of an oral performance that can't be seen later by others! Maybe
video could overcome this need for a written text in a 'supposedly' oral
task. I guess I'll die wondering!
Kim Cooney
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Graham [mailto:p.graham@qut.edu.au]
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 11:15 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: Non-western science
Thanks for the references Hannu.
China invented the first mechanical computers too, I think.
It's probably also worth noting that ancient Greece was where oral
technologies and the written word first joined forces in full. A lot of
people don't usually consider orality as a technology - I don't mean casual
converstaion, but the handing down of sacred knowledge by means of verse,
meter, music, rhyme, etc. By splitting orality from particular people in
orally oriented writing, thought was alienated, became an alien "thing"
that was written down. Thoth and the dragon's teeth.
I think the point at which the oral tradition of Greece mingled with the
methods of writing developed by the ancient Persians (the Greeks stuck a
few vowels in to adapt the consonantal script to their oral tradition) is
the point at which thought and knowledge became seriously alienated. This
is what marks Greece as significant to me. I think it's why it has remained
such a vivid force in the "West", wherever that is. I wonder why a
flat-earth concept (viz, the east-west divide) should remain so much a part
of our "enlightened" consciousness.
Phil
Phil Graham
p.graham@qut.edu.au
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html
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