In class on 2-25 we talked about literacy brainwashing individuals from as early as childhood. It seems that most people’s inability to recite the alphabet backwards supports this claim. Children learn the alphabet through repeated recitation, rather than through understanding. It was surprising to hear the class sing the alphabet together because a cadence developed from the unified rhythm. As a participant, I discovered how automatic the alphabet has become. While reciting it with the rest of the class, my mind was uninhibited and I was able to think about other things.
I’m having trouble deciding what all this represents. The recitation of the alphabet is of the oral tradition in its rhythmic and trance-like qualities, but it stands as an example of the literate tradition’s ability to organize information and present it without any meaning.
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