Losing the joys of the printed word

Sep 10, 2013 Editorial

Yesterday, the entire country should have halted whatever it was doing, grabbed a book and read. Of course the exercise allowed for people to read their e-mail, web chats and just about anything that contained the written word. The occasion was World Literacy Day and it meant a lot to the administrators in the Education Ministry.
For one, English is supposed to be the mother language of the Guyanese people but from recent results less than forty per cent of the students writing the examinations in school exhibit a grasp of the language. Many cannot spell basic English words and the vast majority do not have a vocabulary.
This did not happen overnight. Perhaps the decline in understanding the language coincided with the rise in inflation that priced books out of the reach of the ordinary man. Having to choose between a book and food on the table, it goes without saying what the choice would have been.
But the schools must accept some of the blame. Over time the Ministry of Education had grown accustomed to modernizing its programme. The Americans had already taken possession of the means of global communication so they fashioned what should be the teaching standards. The principle was that spelling was not important. Once the child could express his thoughts then nothing more was needed.
Guyana accepted that irresponsible standard of education and before long we began to produce people who cared less about what is right or wrong in the spoken and written word. Today, there are teachers who like their children cannot spell; some cannot write a proper sentence and still others who would never promote reading because they, themselves, do not read and do not like reading.
Reading is perhaps the most single important thing in the world. It is a skill that transports people to various heights, to places imagined and to depths previously unimagined. Many have learnt of others in strange lands by simply reading about them so that when there was an encounter it was not as though there was need to reinvent the wheel.
Reading opens the mind. It is the one activity that forces reasoning and enables one to marshal facts. The various writers of yesteryear were able to convey their emotions in words. The poets were able to leave the ballads and the sonnets over the years. There was no doubt about their intentions or about their target.
Many of those who read the sonnets were reduced to tears, such was the power of the written word and the emotive force they had.
The songwriters were not far behind and in this day and age people still sing along to the lyrics of certain songs. Again it is the power of the word that creates this emotion. That is why there is the belief that nothing will ever eclipse reading. It is an activity that even the blind enjoys.
One of the greatest benefits of reading is the expanded vocabulary without which no conversation could be complete. Many a lecturer beseeches his ward to learn a new word every day. The new word would come out of a book.
Reading is a dying skill these days. Gone are the days when people rushed to buy books; when they found that the best way to develop their attention span was by reading. In fact, there was the all-round development. Through reading people learnt to listen, to reason and to better express themselves. This is not so today.
Nobody today ever saw people really crave knowledge. That was before the advent of television and before radio became ubiquitous. There was often a young child reading the newspapers aloud to a group of people who sat around, sorry that they could not read, but glad that they were still learning what was on the printed page.
Today, despite the preponderance of schools and the access to the institutes of learning one gets the impression that there is a growing level of illiteracy. And it is sad that this is happening again in this country that had one of the highest literacy rates in the world.

Latest News

Losing the joys of the printed word

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Semi-Finals line up set for Maid Marian Wheat Up Women’s Cup 2024

Young Warriors Cricket Club fulfills its annual...

Chase’s Academic lift 2024 KFC Goodwill Int’l...

Remaining teams in the inaugural K&S/One...

Capital FC, Hi Stars, Silver Shattas win as...

Renuka, Mandhana consign West Indies to record...

Features/Columnists

This is our city

Breaking the Chains of Poverty: A need for political will

Jagdeo de GOAT

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Losing the joys of the printed word

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]