There is a peddled belief that suggests, “In the future people will cease to own books.” Some go further to state that in the next generation, there will be no physical books but rather digital content since the ageing demographic would be gone with their preferences. I suggest we should clap to that. Earlier this
Towards a progressive society
Education is often described as the ‘development of character and mental powers’ (The concise Oxford dictionary, 1976) and its power to liberate the emotion and intellectual condition of people is well captured by T.S. Eliot’s quote when he says that education can be used as a tool for us to break free from the “intellectual
In The Future, People Will Cease To Own Books
A book can simply be defined as a set of written, printed, or blank pages, fastened along one side and encased between protective covers. Books are essential for learning processes and other purposes. The idea of people ceasing to own books in the future is in essence not possible due to people’s high preference to
“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil”. – C.S Lewis
It is only possible to form a judgement about the accuracy of this statement after having formed another: that of what is meant by the term ‘education’. From the nature of the quote, in which C.S Lewis states that people who have received an education without acquiring values often then exploit their education disreputably, it
If everyone were able to speak English, what would happen to all the other languages?
The great Nelson Mandela once said, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Undeniably education has allowed the world to become a better place and it also opens the door for one to overcome the poverty barrier. I live in Durban South Africa. My ancestors settled here from
Our Antiquated Word Containers
‘B-o-o-k-s’, I spell out to my child as he inputs text into a search engine. ‘Just like in e-books, but without the e ‘. The year is 2037, 25 years from now and the global publishing scene has evolved. While it might be unrealistic that my then 18 year old, would not be able to
If Everyone Were Able to Speak English, What Would Happen to the Other Languages?
Imagine 20 years from now. English is the universal language. Travelling to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America is a piece of cake. English is spoken everywhere. By everyone. No more talking with your hands or having to point at objects to make yourself understood. No need to carry a pocket dictionary. No more fumbling around
‘Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil’. – C.S Lewis
In order to fully evaluate this statement, it is necessary to break it down to its core elements. Education, by itself, provides many benefits. It is easy to see that without education, the opportunities available to you in life are limited and that there is a correlation between the standard of education and one’s standing
If everyone were able to speak English, what would happen to all the other languages?
The ability to communicate so precisely with one another is what divides us from other species of animals. Without language, it is difficult to comprehend where we would be right now – it has allowed us to question the universe and, ultimately, to develop and evolve. Therefore, what is even more incomprehensible is the prospect
Education Opens Doors
T.S. Eliot’s words “It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time— for we are bound by that—but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time” serve to remind us that education enables us to overcome even great obstacles. It opens doors, builds
Mistakes are opportunities to learn
A mistake is an action by us, that gets either other people or us into some sort of trouble. Mistakes can be careless or accidental, gigantic like losing one’s life savings in an investment or tiny like spilling juice over a school essay. One thing is for certain though: mistakes are always opportunities for learning,
The Way We Acquire And Share Knowledge Is Changing
The enduring advancement in scientific innovation and the irresistible potentialities of technology are transforming how we acquire and share knowledge, our understanding of what constitutes educational materials, and the key learning skills we will need to be successful learners. Yesterday, there were no books. Today, books fill libraries and house vast knowledge. What tomorrow holds
My Kindle And I
I got a Kindle for my birthday last year. I wasn’t sure that I wanted it, but there it was – sleek and grey in a soft purple cover that closed over it like…well, a book cover. It was wireless enabled and synced with my Amazon account, so when I turned it on it greeted
Babel Fish
The Babel Fish was created in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, long before Google Translate or Yahoo’s version that was named after the Babel Fish, or any of the other free translators you can find online. Google Translate and Babelfish are not always reliable, because there’s slang and there’s names and there’s lots of
Kindles Don’t Smell
Has anybody seen the original Logan’s Run? It was a, ‘not bad for the time’ (1976), science fiction film that brought William Nolan and George Johnson’s tale of an idyllic, hedonistic, yet sinister society into peoples’ living rooms. I watched it with the rest of my family one Christmas Eve, and even now recollect their
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela
The United States is a country of many native people, but most of the population prefers to exclude others to maintain comfortable self-image. We revere our ethnic communities, but our sentiments alter drastically when members of those communities move beyond simply entertaining onlookers. To be sure, this country – in the legal sense – began
“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil”. – C.S Lewis
It’s a fact: education is one of the foundations of financial or status success in life. It can be found other ways, but education opens doors – spiritual and social as well as financial. But Lewis here rejects the idea of systematic, conformist education – he wants important and relevant teachings and ideas woven through
The book is dead (again). Long live the book
“Books are the most dynamic things in history. Nations have gone to war over them. Civilizations have been decimated to extirpate a single text. And yet always something escapes and goes forward, something elusive that is indigenous to the book, that vanishes and surfaces again after the storms have passed, like the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
Ike and Me
I have a wall full of books. I love them. I love the masterpieces, I love the pulpy and forgettable crap. I love the smell of aged ink, I love the texture of thin paperback sheets and the thick creamy stock of hardback first editions. But, these loves are secondary to what I love most:
In the future, people will cease to own books
Wake Up Charlie Dragon! I first read this book around 1987 and now at the age of 29, I still have a sticky-taped together copy, which I’ll read with delight many more times when I have a child one day.I can clearly remember my mother reading the story of Charlie, a dragon who was asleep