EFTA02552353.pdf

From: jeffrey E. <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2017 4:09 AM To: Noam Chomsky Subject: Re: no question in my mind that it is a huge benefit for the g=oup. but my conjecture is that it is not necessarily goo= for the individual. . like being a hero ( t=rowing yourself on a grenade ) . good for the group not =o good for the hero. . as writing forces a I=near slow pace. I wonder if in a large population , hand=riting wiill be correlated with G . an=way , I need to get my mind off the way you have been getting =crewed. drives me crazy. On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 =t 10:51 PM, Noam Chomsky wrote: =blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0.8ex;border-left:lp= #ccc solid;padding-left:lex"> Good to have a fun note. I suspect that forcing children to do anything is probably=harmful. But it's possible to introduce writing and (secondarily= reading in a way that seems to enhance thinking. That's the ide= behind "invented spelling" (here's a link to some of the wo=k: htt=s://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/imce/treiman/Read%20%26%20Treima=_Childrens_Invented_Spelling_final.pdf <https://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/imce/treiman/Read%2=%26%20Treiman_Childrens_Invented_Spelling_final.pdf> ). Back in the early =#39;50s, a philosopher friend of mine (Israel Scheffler) brought me some p=ges on which his two- year old son had written things that he thought were =ibberish, wondering if I could make something of it. It was immediat=ly obvious that the kind had learned the names of the letters and was spon=aneously stringing them together to express himself in writing. And raking interesting generalizations. Thus the letter "A", pr=nounced /ey/, he used for the words "came," "pet", &qu=t;pat"; the letter "i", pronounced /ay/, he used for "=ie", "pot," "but," . And so on. It all made=sense. Our kids did the same thing. Carol wrote some papers ab=ut it, Charles Read and others carried it forward. Turns out to be a=great way to teach reading too. Kids spontaneously express themselves, oft=n in creative way, and the transition to official orthography is not that =ifficult now that they have the general idea. The=e's a debate about it in educational circles, and though I haven't=followed it, my impression is that old-fashioned forcing into a mold proba=ly wins out, undermining the joy of self-expression and possibly reading.<=div> As you may know, Galileo regarded invention of the alphabet a= among the greatest of all human inventions. Can do no better than quote h=s own words. He regarded the invention of the alphabet as "surpassing all stupendous inventions," asking =E2 what sublimity of mind was his who dreamed of finding means to communicate his deepest though=s to any other person, though distant by mighty intervals of place and time! =f talking with those who are in India; of speaking to those who are not yet b=rn and will not be born for a thousand or ten thousand years; and with what facility, by the different arrangements of twenty characters upon a page!=E2 Shortly after, the same observati=n was made about the more fundamental matter of sounds (Port Royal Grammar= 1660). I discovered all of this about 50 years ago and wrote about =t. Unknown then, still unknown, in my view some of the most profound=insights in the human sciences. Smart guys, the f=unders of modern science. On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 5:48 AM, jeffrey E. &=t;jeevacation@g=ail.com <mailto:[email protected]» wrote: EFTA_R1_01709019 EFTA02552353  on a more fun note. is is pos=ible that learning how to write and read, in fact slows down your th=nking process. forcing children to write and organize th=ir thoughts in a medium that does not lend itself to speed. is=not natural? =C2 please note The information co=tained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client pr=vileged, may constitute inside information, and is intended only for JEE Unauthorized use= disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is str=ctly prohibited and may be unlawful. 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If you have received this communication =n error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail or by e-mail to =a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">jeevacation@gmai=.com, and destroy this communication and all copies thereof, inc=uding all attachments. copyright -all rights reserved --94eb2c0481faea7885055fb83aef-- conversation-id 21129 date-last-viewed 0 date-received 1512619750 flags 8590195713 gmail-label-ids 7 6 remote-id 776231 2 EFTA_R1_01709020 EFTA02552354