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Literacy
This note on Literacy is a short introduction to our "On-Line
Information Processing Program".
Words -- where would we be without them? We would still be drawing pictures on the
walls of caves. Of all of the tools for getting ahead in life, the ability to read and
write is very close to being the absolutely most important.
Our most fundamental communications technology -- and a key tool for progress -- is the
"organized" putting together of characters into words and then into phrases that
convey meaning and information. Yes, knowing the "rules of grammar" is crucial
to success in your career.
Today, we can hardly imagine a world without home computers. What about a home
without books and the printed word? This is where I will be linking to stories about
reading and writing, books and literacy. The spread of literacy has always been a question
of attitude. This link provides a view of attitudinal change in Scotland 250 years ago --
the "profaine art of poem-making" grew into an age of enlightenment.
Attitude to Learning
Once you are satisfied that you can read and write reasonably well, your next step to
success is to develop the right attitude to learning. Assess your present attitude to
learning. Ask yourself: "What could I miss out on if I stop learning"? Write a
five-year plan -- where you want to be in your career five years from now and the steps
you should take to get there. You'll find that you simply can't get there unless you
include continuous learning as the foundation for your plan.
By reading, you acquire information. By processing that information in your mind, you
learn. By writing down your own analysis and interpretation of that information, you learn
even more -- much more. And those who read what you have written will learn too.
From The Scarboro Heights Record V9 #5
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Enlightenment and
Cultural Pursuits in Lowland Scotland
The
underpinning of the new capitalist system -- the generation of wealth -- did not
blind Lowland society to other human needs. The late eighteenth century in
Scotland
was a period of enlightenment and cultural achievement. Tenant and middle class
Scots contributed enormously to the development of philosophy, science,
medicine, education, history and literature.
As the old
cooperative system of holding land broke down, enterprise was rewarded with a
secure personal lease on a good-sized farm. Working their own fields
independently of others gave the tenant farmer a sense of individualism on the
land. The Lowland tenant class soon learned to express their new identity in
cultural terms.
The lower and
tenant classes were no longer isolated from the outside world: provided they
could afford to buy or borrow it, the print media was a bonafide
"information revolution", crucial to the outstanding performance of
Scots in world affairs and economic development.
Some, however,
became so immersed in literary pursuits and "leisure" activities that
their farms suffered:
My uncle
Sandy (Alexander) Glendinning farmed Holmains (formerly the seat of Carruthers
of Holmains) conjunctly with his father in law for eight years. His father in
law and cousin, William Park, also a remarkably intelligent man, latterly
obtained the post of Editor of the Dumfries Standard but died soon after. Both
[were] very clever men and very bad farmers. William was steady but absorbed
in literary pursuits. Sandy
was literary too with a dash of poetic genius, but unsteady. He was a capital
hand at any kind of labour, worked well and minded his farm for a month or so
and then took a "rambolt" as he termed it, mounted his horse and
flew up and down all the country for a week or so. This could not continue. He
lost the farm and soon after William's death emigrated to Canada
.[i]
Sandy Glendinning's poems had an attentive readership
in Canada. In 1871 he published Rhymes in London, Ontario
.
[i]
"Account of the Glendinnings in Cassock, Eskdalemuir".
The
Scarboro Heights Record V13 #9
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