THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 20

What is a major cause of the decline of literacy in the United States?

Subject: Literacy - The Out-Loud Culture

Event:  Birthday of American poet Donald Hall, 1928

We have become a nation of passive readers, and passive reading makes for diminished literacy. -Donald Hall

 

Today is the birthday of Donald Hall, American poet and the 14th U.S. Poet Laureate. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1928, and when he was only sixteen, he attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Prior to his death in 2018, Hall published poems, essays, letters, children’s books, and literary criticism (1).

Image by Hannibal Height from Pixabay

In 1985 Hall wrote a short essay for Newsweek‘s “My Turn” column entitled “Bring Back the Out-Loud Culture.” In the essay, Hall reflects nostalgically on a time before television and mass media when print was frequently recited from memory or read aloud, and everyone learned something by reciting or listening to recitations.

According to Hall, the decline in reading and reciting aloud was a huge loss:

“...when we stopped memorizing and reciting literature, our ability to read started its famous decline.  It was the loss of recitation -- not its replacements (radio, film, television) -- that diminished our literacy.”

Hall’s purpose is not to blame television or technology; instead, his target is the loss of out-loud recitation.  Silent readers are more likely to be passive readers; reading out loud, however, requires active reading, resulting in enhanced literacy.  Hall’s position is supported by the writer Verlyn Klinkenborg:

...one of the basic tests of comprehension is to ask someone to read aloud from a book.  It reveals far more than whether the reader understands the words.  It reveals how far into the words and pattern of the words the reader really sees. (2)

Donald Hall ends his essay with a plea to his readers, imploring them to read aloud to their children and to revive the lost art of recitation:

We must encourage our children to memorize and recite. As children speak poems and stories aloud by the pitch and muscle of their voices they will discover drama, humor, passion, and intelligence in print.  In order to become a nation of readers, we need to again become a nation of reciters. (3)

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:   What are strategies that readers can use to be active rather than passive readers?

Challenge - Out-Loud Renaissance:  What is a passage of prose or a poem that you feel is worth reading out loud and is worth committing to memory?  What makes it so exemplary and so worth remembering? Challenge yourself this week to commit a favorite poem or passage to memory. See if it helps you pay more attention to the written word.  Sponsor a “Recitation Day” in your class, school, or community, challenging people to share their poems or passages out loud. 

Also on This Day:  

September 20, 1977:  In an episode of the television sitcom Happy Days, Fonzie completes a jump on water-skis over a shark.  This leads to a new idiom “jumping the shark,” which refers to a moment when a television show, artist, or celebrity has begun its inevitable decline.

Sources:

1 – Poets.org. Donald Hall. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/264.

2-Klinkenborg, Verlyn. “Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud.”  The New York Times 16 May 2009.

3-Hall, Donald. “Bring Back the Out-Loud Culture.” Newsweek 15 April 1985: 12.