"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
(snip)
Just the other day, I was quoting 'The Man From Snowy River' at my
daughter *who had never heard it recited before*. How can it be that such
an icon of the Australian heritage can be left out of today's education
system?

1: we have many "education systems", not just one :-)
2: it would certainly feature in some classes, but not others. the list of
available literature for schools is massive - from within that, teachers
decide.
3: i've heard it recited before & tbh, it does nothing for me. (one person's
classic is another's waste of time, it's just how it is :-) 99% of people
who know me cannot BELIEVE what my favourite book is. usually, i can't
believe theirs, either g

I can never read that poem without shedding a little
tear! Having been a horsewoman for most of my life, I can picture the
stripling's wild ride with such clarity, it hurts. I want my kids to be
able to share such experiences and also to communicate them to others.

I have a theory that it will be far fewer years than we could imagine
before kids no longer need to learn to read or write or spell or punctuate
because machines will do it for them.

why would anyone make a machine to do that if _nobody_ knows (nor
presumably, cares)? that doesn't make sense.

The art forms we call
'the novel' and 'the poem' will disappear in favour of video movies and
thus all the imagery of the great poets and writers will become antique
and therefore no longer have currency. How awful!

it would be awful, but frankly i think you're being a little alarmist. the
death of novels & poems has been predicted but it is doubtful it will happen
(for one thing, if would-be video artists don't know the written word, how
would they be able to read the instructions? ;-) again tbh, i can foresee
worse than the disappearance of poems (which i generally consider to be one
of the worst forms of self-indulgence ;-) but even so, poets just keep
pumping them out! certainly the nature of performance and storytelling
changes (bards are a rare thing these days) but generally what we've always
had & presumably will continue to have are just different ways of people
telling their stories to others. the novel is nowhere near dead - there have
never been as many works of fiction (or for that matter, non-fiction)
available to so many people at once. mass literacy has brought that about &
people do value their literacy. i'd say the novel replaced bards & gossips &
"wise men" of old, video is akin to watching a play or a dance (although we
still have plays & dance performances - & again, more than ever).

lastly, not all of the "great" poets & writers really stand up these days
anyway. sometimes, things just lose currency. there's always a hardcore of
nerds who care about Brilliant Writer X, but not everything ages well.
shrug. imo, the truly remarkable thing about shakespeare (for example) is
that it never loses currency (or hasn't so far, anyway). most of his
contemporaries clearly didn't have what he had - they've lost currency. it
happens. not to make excuses, but i've tried & tried to read some stuff (the
iliad, for e.g.) & just find the style so inadequate compared to people who
came later. the bible is another good example - some bits are just tops, &
others so very, very ordinary (all right, let's be frank - badly written,
outlandish and silly) that they just don't pass muster & simply wouldn't be
published in modern, more discerning times.

I think it's interesting to note that Latin names for plants are easily
understood by most of us and leave no doubt as to a plant's identity
when various common names might be in use...

That's exactly right. Everyone agrees there has to be a common
denominator (as it were) in language.
Kylie
P.S. There you go, Farmie!! I told you I know capitals bg!



ROTFL! I guess it all comes down to learning about what matters to us,
doesn't it?

gasp! i've forgotten my capitals for this one!!

thinking about gum trees, many of them have 5-10 "common" names. the place
of latin names (for the common folk) is to make clear exactly which one
you're referring to. also, lots of plants are _only_ known by their latin
names. i think people who are sensitive about others using latin names have
a generalised anxiety you can't address or change for them :-)
kylie