Hehe, it's another pun... (These are both lines from Shakespeare; the first I made into a pun with "content," and in the second, I juxtaposed "heat" and "frost" because I'm headed back to the South after finishing exams!)
Although all four types of knowledge discussed in class- folk, oral, written, and print- have their own specialized uses in different areas, their uses today play a very different role than in the past. One's use has become very different from the others' in the modern age in terms of what knowledge it continues to preserve and deliver: oral knowledge has ceased to become an effective method of learning new knowledge but has instead taken the role of preserving past cultural knowledge.
Historically, oral knowledge has been used for learning (or, perhaps more accurately, deciding upon) new knowledge. Ancient Greece is the epitome of this as oral debates were often a method of asserting one principle over a contrary principle, and Aristotle's pedagogy was based on oral knowledge. In 2011, oral debates provide little but the means to make fun of Republicans who lack the Greeks' sound reasoning and logical argumentation. In modern society, oral knowledge no longer has a dominant place in our society's pedagogy. Although an instructor presides in a traditional classroom setting, there is almost invariably a printed text upon which the course's learning is based which tends to supersede the oral instruction of the instructor. Furthermore, students' own notes often take the place of the instructor's orally delivered information even if these notes are a poor reflection of the oral lecture. Students also tend to lose focus in lengthy lectures; they can't simply return to a lecture later, but they can return to their text or notes at any time they desire: this coincides with James Williams's statement during the salon that oral knowledge is not as effective as a sole conveyor of knowledge because oftentimes, it must be conserved through written and print knowledge. In domestic learning, folk knowledge usually supersedes the oral as most domestic activities are manual activities delivered with more visual and tactile instruction than verbal instruction and are performed repeatedly. While oral knowledge may have been a more effective mode in the past when most people did not have access to written or print knowledge, that is no longer the case today. Oral knowledge is thus an ineffective means of acquiring new knowledge in the modern age.
Oral knowledge does, however, preserve cultural history and tradition better than any other form of knowledge. Because printed texts are still a relatively recent development, there is much cultural history and tradition not recorded in a print medium. Furthermore, the commoners who were the bearers of the majority of this knowledge could afford neither printed nor handwritten texts to record their traditions in. While folk knowledge could preserve the practices of these people, it could not preserve their stories because it is devoid of language. Oral knowledge therefore was the form of knowledge used by commoners for most of history. It is therefore this form that carries cultural histories and traditional practices. For example, most people who can tell stories about their family history, such as how their ancestors came to the United States, can do so only because of the oral stories that were passed down from generation to generation. Music, another form of oral knowledge, also holds many of these cultural stories and allows it to be passed on from generation to generation. Also, were it not for oral knowledge, cultural folk knowledge could not be preserved as both rituals and stories are inseparable from language, and, as Brianne Burraston noted in her post Hosanna! Preserve the Feelings of Oral Knowledge, oral knowledge seems to be more apt at transferring emotion than other forms of knowledge, one thing making it better for stories related to cultures and families but not necessarily wanted for academic instruction.
Oral knowledge therefore has transitioned from being a method of ascertaining knowledge in the past to now being a method of preserving cultural history and tradition, and it is no longer an effective means of formal academic pedagogy.
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