"Jerusalem"

Wave the St. George and weep.


Then check out "I Vow to Thee My country," and for fun and political incorrectness, this.

Unit Three: Written Knowledge

Cuneiform tablet (creative commons licensed
by Unhindered by Talent)

Writing was an invention that didn't just change civilization; it became one of its foundational institutions. For the next few weeks we will be focusing on the effects of writing on the history of civilization.

Of course, from studying oral knowledge, we have already seen that language and the power of speech has been central to society -- to art, religion, politics, etc. The question now is, how do societies change with the advent of writing?

For one thing, new institutions emerge that depend upon the things that writing can provide that a merely oral-based society could not.

Class Performance: King Benjamin's Speech

Students in Honors 201: Reinventing Knowledge at Brigham Yong University learned about oral knowledge by together memorizing and reciting the entire speech given by King Benjamin in The Book of Mormon (see Mosiah 2:9 - 5:15). They memorized this within a week's time and worked both individually and within groups to prepare the 30-minute speech:

Reinventing the Syllabus (1): Personal Learning

The first modern syllabus
(Henry Adams, Harvard, 1876)

As we continue to scrutinize the various institutions and instruments of knowledge, and especially as we begin moving from our discussion of oral knowledge to written knowledge, I wish to draw attention to the vital importance of personal learning. I'd like to approach this important topic by first addressing the deficiencies of traditional syllabus-based learning in the college classroom.

I'm writing this post in part because a number of students have approached me and Dr. Petersen because they did not know what to write about in their upcoming blog posts (since we are transitioning to a new unit and no specific blogging assignments were given).

On the one hand, students who have approached us have shown an admirable sense of duty; they want to stay on top of their assignments. On the other hand, this has made me realize how much our students' learning is being driven by a syllabus-driven model of learning. I ask my students to consider the fact that such a familiar approach to learning in college may not suit them very well for very long.

Oral Knowledge Student Group Videos

Each of the student groups was assigned a different emphasis during our current unit on oral knowledge. These are those assignments. Click past the break to see the videos each group produced on the topic.


Group 1 Language  (preservation, acquisition)
Group 2 Language (functions and systems)
Group 3 Story & Song (folklore, epic poetry)
Group 4 Story & Song (drama, music)
Group 5 Religion (rituals, rites, theology)
Group 6 Education (methods and institutions)
Group 7 Education (mnemonics)
Group 8 Rhetoric (Politics, law, civic life)
Group 9 Rhetoric (Eloquence and philosophy)

Give Me that Old Time Religion

I'm going to depart from your expectations like Elder Uchtdorf talking about something other than flying, by NOT beginning this post with a discussion of the Latin word "religio." I know. Try to be strong. I am going to talk about how this is one area in which we already excel so well that we need to be made aware of it from another new angle. We've done this with other "knowledges" that we all take for granted: try to get you as students to see differently the things you know, and think about how it is that you know them. Religion, though, is a special case of this same idea. It informs much more of our world view than whether or not you know how to whistle or whether you have kept a blog before. And it is largely orally taught and learned. Try to think of these questions in regards to that form of the religious knowledge you have; even if you recall scripture, do so as if it is story, told and listened to, rather than as "Holy Writ" to be silently read.

Our specific religion is probably the main reason we are all here--specifically HERE, here, at BYU. Because we could all be at other universities, doing similar things, but not the same thing, that we do here, which is to deliberately teach and deliberately learn, all from the unique perspective of the restored gospel. We know what that means. How would an outsider view it? (Many outsiders? Outsiders with differing levels of tolerance or patience with religion at all; what about a confirmed skeptic/atheist?) Why might it be valuable to try to see that question through to its multiple possible responses? ...And so on to some further questions that might go into your blog posts about Religion (with a capital R). Let's get spooky right off: Where did it come from--chickens and eggs notwithstanding, are you open to either an evolutionary or a dispensationary model in studying the origins of religious behavior? Maybe a dispensationary model for the "Us" people and an evolutionary one for the "Thems"? (If that made you nod without squirming, think harder.)