Post Literate-Neo Oralcy

Triad Day

“Can you hear me now?”

I. Oral Tradition

II Literacy

III. Post Literacy, Neo-oral

Juggle: all 3-in-1 at any point in time these days,
synchronic aswell as chronological; but all told: I’m
walking inside an end-of-the-century “new” critical
thinking literacy-privileged deep-sea diving suit in
seas of post literate neo-oral ages of information
& communication.

ME: preparing for my classes.

My first college class in 1956 had a couple hundred
students positioned to hear lectures on European
history. One—nonchalant—smoked a pipe under
the professor’s nose—grandly flipping & folding
his NY Times so as to study the columns.

Literacy.

Any one could buy semester-lecture notes for all large
introductory classes, compiled and printed by under-
graduates at the college co-op. 5 dollars.
Oralcy transcribed into Print culture.
Student enterprising work &
service project.

How to characterize the current environment?
Pupils write test info under the beaks of truck
hats, text messages across a busy classroom,
video the harassment of teachers from cell
phones for You 2, call up an encyclopedia
of human knowledge from lap tops, talk long
distance while driving, enjoy cybernetic navigation
& satellite location devices while omni-directional
street cameras catch the action all around.

“Can you hear me now” is already moot.

I’m not complaining. A different world is all.
Just trying to describe & characterize.
I need help, as usual. That should
be redundantly obvious.

Schooling: School & Be Schooled

I’m consistently surrounded
by a coherence of
abundance,
wealth &
talent;
threat,
disaster &
neediness.

T. S. Eliot’s Collected Poetry steadies
the lamp behind my head & prevents
its falling to damage my noggin.

Riches. Galore.

I use the light to pursue investigations.
Me in the mirror, my reflection I study,
express, project & forget how I filter
the whelm to suit my cultural relatives
& must be reminded time & again.

xxxooo, Presbyter