ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes a writer’s purpose and the structure and meaning of a piece from the mere production of alphabetic text or print. It starts treating writing as something that was far bigger than alphabetic text and print. A significant oral residue laid beneath the surface of its print-thick terrain. Socrates suggested that when writers bent over a document, they would do so in isolation. Rather than turning toward their subjects and learning in communion with them, they would turn into themselves and over the text they were creating. The alphabet is efficient, elegant, and portable, but alphabetic text and print have also made critical contributions to the evolution of human thought and behavior as well. The research is clear: Indigenous, Black, and Students of Color, English language learners, and those who live in or come from poverty are systematically underserved in classrooms and schools.
