From: Glenn Cook (pule67@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Jan 06 2001 - 05:57:44 EST
Carl I want to second what you are saying if I may. I am going to talk about
math, but the problem is the same. When I taught math in "antiquity" I
taught, among other class, a class on the slid rule. Many outside the
colleges felt it was not a good thing as it hindered the students
development and ability to think. In fact one time I took a slide rule to a
test for a licence and was told it could not be used, as it had all the
answers on it. My response was yes, but you find them. And as you all know
it was widely used by engineers and did not hinder their math.
Then near the end of my teaching days calculates started to come out (very
expensive and were only able to add, subtract, multiply and divide, but did
that well and were better than a mechanical adding machine). I was asked if
I could do anything for high school students that were found to be retarded
in math. I evaluated them and found they were not dumb, but had trouble
learning the addition and multiplication tables. Because of this they had
mental blocks toward anything mathematical.
I had about 30 of them bused to the college every day for a one hour class
and the first rule was they had to use the calculators to work all problems.
Even if they knew the answer they had to use the calculator. I received a
lot of heat for this by the math department as "it watered down math and
weakened the students". They had to pay their dues and learn the old way
even if it meant they never learned.
The result was that in one semester most of them were working math at the
highschool level as well as other highschool students. Some had overcome
their problem with the math tables (which, after all, are just pure memory)
and were asking to drop the calculators unless they got stuck. So in the
second semester I made the calculators optional. Some never got away from
the calculator, but all were working math at about the same proficiency as
other highschool students. But! Despite the fact that they had to admit that
the class was a success the math department voted against continuing it as
they felt it was wrong to allow students to use a calculator.
Today students are forced to learn to use the calculator in their math
classes. The calculator removes so much drudgery and time-consuming memory
drills from the learning of math and leaves the mind free to do the real
math-the reasoning. And, without even knowing it they learn the memory part
by use.
I cannot help but believe that the same thing will be true in this area.
There are a lot of advantages to the e-Bibles and so they cannot be all bad.
I have to confess my bias here, as I use both interlinear Greek and Hebrew
Bibles as well as E-Bibles. I will never be a scholar in Greek or Hebrew, I
am just setting here reading and waiting on God, but sure do enjoy reading
in both of them and need this help. And you must remember that the majority
of your students will be like me and just enjoy what they have learned. Very
few will go on to be the great scholars that we find on this list and those
that do will go beyond this limitation and may even be spurred on by these
helps. Most of us like reading the scriptures in Greek and Hebrew, just
because we love them in the original language, and we rely on you that are
more intelligent and learned to help us out.
I have the greatest respect and appreciation for Clayton Bartholomew and his
scholarship as well as his willingness to be helpful to a crazy old man like
me. He has helped me out many times (off list) and I thank him for it. He
is extremely kind with his time, and I know how pressed he is for time as
any teacher is. But, in this case, as much as I respect him as a teacher and
scholar, I would caution him to relax a little and look for the good in
these changes and use them to his advantage, as they are here to stay. I am
sure he will, as he is a very intelligent person and a kind-thoughtful man.
But then Clayton these are just the rumblings of an old man that is out of
the loop so to speak.
Glenn Cook
P.O. Box 123
Aurora, Utah
84620
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu>
To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Cc: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 12:39 PM
Subject: [b-greek] RE: Interlinears, Analyticals and E- Bibles
> At 11:44 AM -0700 1/5/01, Clayton Javurek wrote:
> >Clayton Javurek
> >E-MAIL: javurek@asu.edu
> >
> >There are just a few persons (and they will always be few in number)
> >who do their Greek the old fashioned way like Solomon,Smith,Barney - they
> >earn it!
> >
> >99.99% of human beings are just like water and electricity:
> >Take the path of least resistance.
> >
> >Given those facts, it is a waste of time to lament over or trying to turn
> >the tide of human nature when these electronic tools of Bible study
> >are marketed. Information is no longer the privilege of an elite group
> >of scholars or professionals. Technology has put tons of info at
> >the fingertips of John Q Public. Just ask those who work with
> >financial investing. John Q Public can get up to date info
> >on the financial markets as fast as can any professional. The info age
> >is here and there is no turning back. Stop crying over spilled milk.
>
> Yes, and there were the days before books when most people had to list to
a
> Biblical text read out loud from a lectern; I don't think it makes a great
> deal of sense to lament the fact that we've moved into a new technology
and
> that it affects the way scholarship and serious study are engaged in to a
> considerable degree. What we must learn to do is to maximize the
> opportunities of the new technology and note the perils of it. The first
> great adventure confronted by the tradition with which we are concerned
was
> re-formulating it into the categories of the Greek language with all the
> vast possibilities for good and evil that entailed.
>
> Really I don't think this is the proper forum to lament the fact that we
> live in the 21st century; while I think we must become as fully as aware
as
> we can, as we can become aware of them, of the perils involved, but I
> hardly think that we can reject the computer revolution and nod our heads
> and assert to all the world that it is surely a sad day for New Testament
> scholarship and serious biblical study; I rather think it's exciting.
>
> --
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics/Washington University
> One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
> Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
> cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
> WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
>
> ---
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>
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