ABSTRACT
The form of the written word has changed over the years since the technology of writing
has developed. So, too, have the uses and practices of the scribes who read and write.
Today we are in the midst of what I have called the “Third Information Revolution,” and
we are as flies trying to figure out what has happened to the air through which the webs
of text and media have been spun. I would like to say something about the revolution and
the consequences for those whose profession is the training of scribes. I use the word
scribes advisedly, for I do not believe that schools are so much in the business of teaching
the populace to read and write as they are in the perpetuation of a scribal class that is
concerned with the preservation and transmission of information. If we were confined to
teaching reading and writing, we would finish our job in 4 years. We have the other 8-or
10 or 12-to train a variety of scribes.
