“Oral Knowledge” by Brandon Schall

The invention of writing really had an affect on people. Ong says that lists were used initially to keep track of people. The Romans originally put people’s names on lists by the way that it sounded, not alphabetically. They also used lists to help preserve a permanent record of their oral speech. This has changed greatly, the only time I need to remember anything is when I have to memorize information for a test. I could not recite my paper for a teacher word for word. Our culture has shifted to a culture that is forced to depend on writings, books and technology not on our memory. I think our culture would be more knowledgeable if we were required to remember our work and be able to recite information orally. If schools such as those in England who make their students recite and make an argument on their paper orally were instituted in the United States, it would make us more intelligent as a whole. Being forced to exercise our memory would make Americans more disciplined and help us retain the information we read instead of forgetting it as soon as the test is over.