From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 08:38:30 -0400

I'll go out on a limb and say that while I don't consider reading that important to life, I do think story is. I love to read myself, but often wonder how I'd cope in a dire and longterm situation (say imprisonment) without anything to read. I figure I'd tell myself stories in my head: old ones and new ones. I'd make do without books. I'd survive through stories.

I suspect that this stance is the result of my two years in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps Volunteer. If I had not spent so much time in a place where people have emotionally and spiritually rich lives without reading I would probably feel differently. Functional literacy was what those of us who taught aimed for. We weren't teaching so that people in Sierra Leone would read books the way I do. Just so they could read basic forms and signs. Sure, it would be great if they could read books too, but I'm bothered (no doubt this is the result of my Peace Corp training and subsequent degree in International Education) at the way we privilige reading and the book and tend to overlook (and, too often, look down upon) the other ways people worldwide receive and send out information. Popular culture is a piece of this. (My students and I raised money for handcranked radios for Sierra Leoneans a few years ago. Books? One radio for a whole village seemed much more important to us.)

Today I see a wealth of ways to receive and present stories: in addition to traditional book experiences (private reading, reading aloud, etc.) there are films (good bad and horrible), blogs, graphic novels, web pages, video games, radio, television, and more.

So while reading may be at risk, it seems to me story is not.

Monica




Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Sat 17 Jul 2004 07:38:30 AM CDT