Writing, Thinking, Living, Transforming

"The point is that we live such a wi-fi-enabled, out-sourced, off-site, backed-up life that we use our brains for little more than remembering where we store our passwords than what it is (stories, ideas, responses, reflections) they protect. Ours has evolved into such a non-oral tradition "tradition," that the thought of memorizing sonnets from a poem or narrative stories from the Bible for meaning and not information seems archaic and unnecessary. If we think we need it, we can find it; we don't need to learn it. And if we don't think we need to learn it, well, who cares?"~Craig Dunham

 "Biblical literacy programs need to do more than produce informed quoters. They need to produce transformed readers."~David Nienhuis

Craig Dunham is a teacher of New Testament and Ethics at one of the local Christian private schools. He has written three posts, so far, to his blog detailing the difficulties his students have in expressing themselves in writing and what he see as the causes of those difficulties. This first link would be hilarious if it weren't simultaneously troubling and sad on a number of levels. His other posts talk about biblical and theological illiteracy , illiteracy problems in general (and this is not limited to "Why Johnny can't read."/phonics/whole language questions), and  the influence an incorrect understanding and use of technology has on this developing problem. All factors combine to create young adults who have no foundation for thinking through an increasing complex world that they, and we,  must live in. More links and thoughts later.