Since the development of writing we have gradually privileged text literacy above other forms of communication. Even oratory, one of the pillars of Greek civilisation, has been subsumed in the march of text literacy above all else. In education we put so much emphasis on text literacy that children who have difficulty with text are labelled disabled and moved off into special education programs, suggesting that there is something wrong with them that needs to be fixed. Aside from humanitarian principles, the march of technology has made this fixation on text untenable.
In this article we explore why text has been privileged and a case is made of why a more diverse and inclusive approach to media should be developed in education.
