If we thought with words then writing would be easy since we would just have to transcribe our thoughts. Maybe I’m weird but that is not what my writing process is like. I have thoughts that I have to translate into words and then I have to extensively edit the words to convey more of the thoughts than the first translation did. Plus, some thoughts evolve throughout the writing and editing process. And when I am engaged in a feedback process with editors who are not me I have to contend with what they are taking from my writing and projecting back at me both through their words and any other channels of communication to which I have access.
If you hold the opinion that you think in words, does that mean that you have never had a thought that you couldn’t put into words?
Does it mean that you have never felt a magnitude of awe that made you speechless?
If there are people who think entirely in words I pity the limitations of their world. I also fear for the real world consequences of their thought processes.
Are there advocates of the 3Rs version of Back-to-Basics that are assuming that teaching the 3Rs is the ultimate form of education because that is, practically speaking, complete access to the their entire world?
On second thought, maybe that explains a lot of bad things in the world. If people in power are limited to thinking and acting based on words alone then they are living in such an impoverished world that they are an order of magnitude more delusional that those of us whose thinking transcends words.
Our education system is a failure to every child who leaves childhood without having experiences that transcend the 3Rs.
I wrote about a similar topic recently: magical thinking about language
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