Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Death of Literacy? | Lefty Parent

The Death of Literacy? | Lefty Parent

The Death of Literacy?

There’s been a thread on the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) listserv I participate in titled “The Death of Literacy”, started by one of the more active list participants, Todd, who is closing down his book store which he has unsuccessfully tried to transform into a learning center or perhaps a library for alternative schools in the San Francisco Bay area where he lives. He is bemoaning a generation of young people who appear to be turned off to books and literature (at least the printed and bound versions you buy in bookstores or borrow from the library), in favor of electronic media and particularly dazzling video games that to many in the older generations seem like tools for killing time, perhaps self-medicating the stresses of life, and little more.

Based on Todd’s original post, a long thoughtful email discussion continued on the subject mainly among three list participants – Todd, Leo and Matt (with others chiming in occasionally) that involved a several week