Post Literacy. Texting. Social Promotion

Morocco

The world's first university was founded by an Islamic Moroccan woman, 
Fatima al-Fihri in 859.

The great Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, was an alumnus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides

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Dear Fred,

Tomorrow, I will finish my response to Orthosphere's "Post Literacy" and send it to you straightaway.

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Is texting a new language? 

Should it be honored with recognition?

I don't see that texting is intrinsically different from my Mom's "shorthand" which was taught in the nation's schools as soon as it was devised and its mastery was immediately rewarded in the marketplace.

True, texting is generalized and shorthand was specialized but this distinction begs another set of questions.

A fundamental purpose of high school is not -- as "patriots" pretend -- to learn "content," but to learn how to behave. 

For most Americans, well-regulated behavior, punctuality and "just showing up" are the trinitarian outcomes of public instruction. Otherwise we would have neither Tea Bags nor Fundamentalist Christians.

I have no problem with social promotion as long as assignation of workplace "posts" does not normalize the employment of "the socially promoted" over "the academically promoted."  There will, of course, be exceptions to the rule, but I don't think social promotion presents any existential threat to marketplace preference for the learned.

Fear of social promotion is a tempest in a teapot - a textbook illustration of conservative alarmism.
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/07/conservatives-scare-more-easily-than.html

Conservatives are bent on pilpulistic  justice and cannot stand the thought that somebody -- somewhere -- might get a free lunch. 

This is because conservatives require a "God" who is absolute arbiter of merciless, non-indulgent justice, always playing by the rules. (Indulgence is a high water mark of Catholicism, not reason for criticism,)

Concerning "the free lunch..."

On New Year's Day I greeted everyone I met: "Happy New Year! Another free trip around the sun."

To surround freedom with a matrix of sine qua non economic hurdles reveals contemporary "conservatism's" dimwitted assumption that freedom is an intrinsically abstract phenomenon that can be separated from economics.

One way or another people will fill their bellies even if means "eating the rich."

"The rich" on the other hand believe they can keep all the money they get.

But they can't. (Even the Church teaches this.)

Wealth inequality can only go so far and then the rank-and-file rise up. 

Such uprising may not be fundamentally political but rather the political outcome of economic debacle. 

The Great Depression led to the New Deal. 

And before it's over The Great Recession will lead to a new, New Deal (of which Obamacare is one part).

See "Republican Rule and Economic Catastrophe: A Lockstep Relationship"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/05/republican-rule-and-economic.html

Pax tecum

Alan

On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 5:15 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:

Post-literacy is a lively topic. Is it inevitable? That would be the first question.

Is texting a new language? Should texting be honored with recognition?

If  high school students refuse to read, but otherwise behave well, should they be promoted?

On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 2:05 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:

I believe there is a good garden in New Jersey somewhere, but I have not seen it.

On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 8:37 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Fred,

Thanks for your email. 

I am putting finishing touches on my reply to your previous email about Post-Literacy.

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I used to have a dismissive feeling about New Jersey.

However, a couple of New Jersey natives who have become friends in recent decades have changed my view.

I do not know if New Jersey is any longer "The Garden State" - perhaps "The Almost-Agribusiness State." 

That said, I would venture that organic truck farming has entered a period of resurgent vitality.

Pax tecum

Alan

On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 10:36 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:

Alan,

I have skipped the entire New Jersey scandal. That might be because I have skipped New Jersey. To me, it's just a place you drive through on the way to New York.

I am aware of vast tomato farms in the southern part of the state, and that it is known as the Garden State -- there!

That's something. Does NJ live up to its nickname -- I'll bet it does in some ways, but all I've ever seen is the turnpike.

--

Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214

My gardening blog is  Fred Owens

My writing blog is Frog Hospital

send mail to:

Fred Owens
35 West Main St Suite B #391
Ventura CA 93001

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