Yes, I know. It should be the Three R’s. And that apostrophe shouldn’t be there – but it does make the phrase more easily recognised.
I’ve nothing against Arithmetic, in fact I enjoy it, but here I’m only referring to Reading and Writing. And this short blog entry is in honour of them, because without them where would we all be?
The development of language and writing is one of the essential ingredients of civilization. Reading and writing skills are essential in order to take part in even the simplest activities, and it is through them that we are able to articulate our thoughts and ideas.
I love reading and writing and couldn’t live without either. I’m thankful that I received a good education, especially in the subject of English. It has not only made my life so much more enjoyable but has enabled me to practise as a lawyer and, later on, run a business providing writing services to others.
Armed with these two skills, any one of us can find out almost anything we want. In earlier times we had public libraries where we could research on almost any subject under the sun. Now we have the internet, so we don’t even have to leave our homes, as long as we have a computer and an internet connection. And if we don’t, there are internet cafes.
It’s easy to take reading and writing for granted, but we must never forget the incredible advantage in life that anyone has once they have mastered these skills in their own language (and even more so if they learn other languages as well). But so many people stop improving their skills once they leave school (or even before).
They go through life with only the most basic ability in reading, writing and communicating generally. Often their vocabulary is limited to just a couple of hundred words, and the only reading they do is restricted to the tabloid press, with more pictures than words, and the TV listings.
This is a great pity. I know we can’t all love the same things (or, as my old headmaster used to say, we’d all want the same wife), but if the standard falls below a certain point, and if the standard in various other essential ingredients of civilization falls similarly, then we’re in the same situation the Romans were in around the year 400 AD.
So I urge everyone to keep reading and keep writing, because what you don’t use nature has a tendency to take away from you. And certain sinister forces are at work to take your freedoms away, as I said in my two previous blog posts, so be vigilant. Let’s keep our ten billion words plus one.
Beware of anyone who wants “hate sites” or anything of a similar nature to be “closed down in the interests of good community relations”. They want to abolish (even more of) your hard-won freedoms and entrench their own power over you. And the ability of ordinary folk to read and write are in their way.
So in the interests of freedom – long live the two R’s – the widespread ability to read and write exactly what we like.
Philip Gegan
