Breathing Life into Orality Thinking
My grandmother was perhaps the greatest story-teller I’ve met. Her ability to weave a tantalizing tale, was perhaps only surpassed by her ability to make her Steinway sing. Making her living as a night-club jazz pianist, she could, well into her arthritic eighties, conjure a tune for any occasion, is just about any style requested. I see these two skills, her piano playing and her storytelling deeply connected. Just don’t ask her to play sheet music or read a book.
As I read through Ong’s (1982) take on the characteristical differentiation of primary oral and literate cultures, I kept returning to memories of my Gram. She could probably play a simple melody line from sheet music, and I suppose she could read (I recall getting a letter or two from her), but she embodied so much of what Ong seems to value in oral cultures. She, like so many jazz musicians, relied on musical mnemonics, her autobiographical stories were all full of over-saturated vibrant personalities (“colorless characters cannot survive oral mnemonics” says Ong), and everything she did was about connecting with people. Yet for all desire for those abilities in our children and students, we find that the norm to the formulaic rote learning of standardized testing and Toronto Conservatory “paint-by-number” music programs.
Indeed, there is much to value in the characteristics of oral cultures that are largely diminished or completely absent in modern literate cultures. Ong brings justification to this sacrifice; “Indeed to advance Science and many other Human endeavors orality must become literacy. We must die to continue living.” While this may be true, we must acknowledge the value of “orality thinking”, and be vigilant to breath life into its ideals, especially in the classroom.
Returning to the music metaphor, Priest (1989) argues for a shift in music education back to learners playing “by ear” (a skill that is deeply connected to oral traditions). In a musical world obsessed with perfect musical replication, a skill made possible through notation literacy, “the value of playing by ear may be grossly underestimated.” He explains that reliance on graphic representation of music (notation) can actually be a hindrance to deep musical understanding, and not only inhibits creativity, but ultimately turns students off completely. Are we doing this with our literacy education as well? Are we so bound to the measurability of our grapholects that we have hindered learning and indeed turned students off? Has “learning to read and write disabled the oral poet” (Ong, p59) in our young learners?
Ken Robinson (2006) argues that through making literacy education our focus, schools have killed creativity in children. Consider that for a moment. Ong states that “orality must become literacy”, but literacy kills creativity. Learning to read sheet music inhibits the ability to play-by-ear. Reciting poems diminishes the ability to create write unique poetry. Did the pendulum of literacy education swing too far in the last century? Robinson contends that, “that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
Ong, W. (1982). Orality and Literacy. New York, NY: Routledge.
Priest, P. (1989). Playing by Ear: Its Nature And Application To Instrumental Learning. British Journal of Music Education (6, 2) p.193-191
Robinson, K. (2006, Feb.) Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity? [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en
Hi Joshua,
When reading Ong, I thought a lot about music too: orality vs. literacy equated to jazz vs. symphony orchestras, The Grateful Dead vs. Rush, etc. The repetition and following of patterns especially reminded me of old blues standards, that different musicians and bands would play, maybe changing up the order of the lyrics, the tempo, or the key, but having the same structure, feel, and the same oral tale told, really.
Great post, and cheers to your grandmother!
Great post! Your grandmother sounds like an amazing person.
I think because humanity has largely become so immersed in literacy and the barriers and functions of literacy, it is impossible to think outside of literacy.
I also have read Ken Robinson’s books, and feel our paradigm of literacy is not working, not the way it is structured, or has been structured. I wonder how it will change and adapt to new literacies and how it will look in the future?
Great post Joshua. I was reading your thoughts on society’s obsession with being able to replicate a piece of music by reading the score and playing it exactly as it is written. This reminds me of an episode of Star Trek: my favourite show. Data was putting on a performance and played a piece of music flawlessly but his audience was less than enthused. He was lacking the subtle nuances that each individual player adds to a piece when she/he plays it. I think that you are right when you mention that music is a human experience. Some part of it will always transcend writing and print.
I have also been thinking about Ong (1982) and Bolter (2001). Both discussed the distance that is created between the author and the reader when books are printed. Texts seem to become the authority and they are rarely questioned. The author is removed from the reader’s experience. I am an amateur guitar player and not very good at reading music. When I am looking at printed music, I never question the motives of the composer when she/he wrote a certain piece of music.
Ong (1982) also discusses that writing and printing are permanent representations of very temporary things. So to is musical notation: Musicians play a note that is written on the page by the time they move on to the next note, the previous note no longer exists. Where printed music differs from printed words is that a single piece of music can have several parts played simultaneously. In the case of certain instruments (piano) one musician can play two parts at the same time. In more orchestral compositions, many musicians contribute to a larger piece. One of the strengths of printed music is that it makes it possible for diverse individuals to work together to accomplish an amazingly complex task.
James.