Some groups advocate the
digest approach for texts, sometimes presented in the form of
comic strips or Internet-like messages of seven sentences per
paragraph, each sentence containing no more than seven words.
These explanations assume the permanence of literacy. They
concentrate on strategies, from infantile to outlandish, to
maintain literacy's role, never questioning it, never even
questioning whether the conditions that made it necessary might
have changed to the degree that a new structure is already in
place. Educators like to think that their program is defined
through Matthew Arnold's prescription, "Know the best that is
known and thought in the world," an axiom of tradition-driven
self- understanding. This attitude is irrelevant in a context in
which best is an identifier of wares, not of dynamic knowledge.
Some educators would follow Jacques Barzun's recommendation:
"serious reading, serious teaching of reading, and inculcation of
a love for reading are the proper goal of education."
Ideal vs. real
Schools at all levels of education purport to give students a
traditional education and promise to deliver the solid education
of yesteryear. Contrast this claim to reality: Under the
pressure of the market in which they operate, schools maintain
that they prepare students for the new pragmatic context. Some
schools integrate practical disciplines and include training
components.
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