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Teaching the
World to Read
by
Oex1er Faulkner
The fact tbat you can read
lhis
page sets
you
apo.tt
dnmatio:ally
Crom
mucb of the
world's populatíon.
1~
ís ímpossíble to deter·
mine exactly how many people are iUiterace.
but oooservati\·e U..N. cstimace.s pvt che
prcsent total at uound
800
míUoon people
overthe age of
1
S.
That means about one
thud
or
Lbe world's
adult populatíon - or about four tunes tbe
population of the Uníted States - cannot
read or write.
Thís laclc
of educ:aúon oondemns
thosc:
millions
to
a less·than.humao status. Tbe
illiceratc lbird world subsistence fanner can·
not decipher simple agricultura! insttuctions
whicb
mosñt save
bis
crops.
The
ílliterate
Latin American woma.n ca.nnot protect hcr
cJ:tildren from dísease whicb a poste< plainly
e..tplaint:
bow
lO prevenl or cure.
To remedy Ibis uagic situation, the World
Bank in Washington, D.C.
has
just pub–
llshed
a sweepitt¡ aitici.sm
o(
cducation in
developms oountries and olrered ovez
SJSO
million
to
help change
<hinv.
World Bank President Robert
S.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CH/LDREN
in
Nairobi, Kenya, East A frica. listen atten·
tively
•.s
a cls.ssmate recites dudng sn
English· language
class.
Mc:Namara. in bis
roreword
co che
repon,
wrítes
thal
"developi.ng countries havc
ueatly expanded theor educaUOtlal systems
Qver the
patt
quatter
ora
ccncury. But mucb
of the exparuion has beco misdirected. The
results are seco
i4
one of the most dísturt>ing
paradoxes of ou.r ume: whtle milbons of
people from among the educoted are unem–
ployed, millions of jobs are waiting to be
dnnc
b<ause
people with tbe risñt educa·
tion, training and sk]lls cannot be found.•
In a 73-page
repor~
Education Sector
Worlcing Papv.
tbe bank complained tbat
sehools
in
dcvelopinlf oountries favor city
dwellers and middle-oncomc and upper-io·
oome groups at tbe expense or tbe urban and
the
rural
poor.
Tbe sc:boots• etforts so rar ..have beco in–
sufficiencto provide education.
ror more
tban
halfof the cJ:tildreo and adults
in
developing
couotrics,"
1t
added.
lt
goes
on
to
n:port that
in
1S or
lhc
world's
poorest eountrics,
only
ono
third
of elemenwy sehool-aged chil·
drenare
cnroUed.
Al.so, argues the report, the education that
i.s
offered tends to be irrelevant to deveJ..
opment oeed$. ofien •snoring
tbosc:
practica!
slcllls which eveorually
occupy
60%
to
801.
of
the population.
Amoog the World Baolc's
specifle
recom·
mendations were the foUowing:
•
There should be at lcut a mimimum
basic educotion for a
Uas
fully andas soon as
ava¡Jable
resowces
pett'lliL
• That
1\uther
education
and
uaining
beyond tho basic leve! sbould be provided
selectively in order
to
improve' the perforw
ma.nc:e of economic, social and othrr devel–
opmental roles.
•
That a
national
system or
education
should
be
VJewed
as a comprrbe.nsive lca.m–
íngsystem.
~
• In
thc inte.rest or both increucd pro.
ductivity aod social equity, education op–
portunities should be equaliud. makíng
education available ampns dilrereot geo–
graphical, ethníc, social, sex, inoome a.nd agc
voups.
But
will
tbe devdoping countries face up
to tbe need for chango?
Tbe
risb
involved in hi¡hly innovative
action are substantial
to
the
ba.ok,
and even
more so to tbe borTO-Ners. Thc repon
aJ.so
predicated that very few countries will
at·
tempt to undcruke the radical changes
wlucb many obscTvers c:on.sider neces.ury.
lt
ís e.¡timated, however, tbat if trends con·
tinue.
the
number
or
illiteratc:
will
i4crease
to
86S
millioo by
\nS.
To echo thc words of UThant: ' 'The
com·
plexity of thc problem of illiteracy calls for
the io.te.rvention
o(
tbe most modem of edu·
cational technology .. .
and
ot calls for the
mobili.ultioo of aU available l!nanclal re·
tources."
O
THE KJNG JAMES BIBLE–
MOST POPULAR TRANSLATION
by
John R. Schroedor
•
•;e
masterpltce wlto.st
cadencedphNUing
1$
an
lmlesrr11cllbfe
par1
of Wut<m
cuf·
lurt.
, .
can
N
fouttd In
~rlfap1
l.....,..tltird.t
ofAmtrlco's
homts"
(Time).
•
"An
tndJufntllnk, líurary and
religloou.
~>m-un
tloe Entlislo·Jp«J/<ing
~/u
ofthe
world"
(Sir Winl/on ChuN:hi/1).
•
''The history o[t/11
A
uthorl:.d
V
en
Ion
luu
b«n
told
~
oftm
1/uJt
1 .n11 MI atlmtpl
10 ntelllt, and lts
~aulttJ
praised so lavi.tltly
tltGtl
wl/l
not
praiPJ
them" (C. S. L•wú).
The publication of tbe Authorited
Ver–
sion
was
undoub<edly the p-eatcst acbieve·
ment of f<jng James 1 of England. Hís own
com.ment clea.rly manifested its critical need:
"1 profess," he
said.
"1 c:ould never yet
see
a Bible well translared
tn
English"
WEEK
ENDINO
MARCH 8,
197S
(F. F.
Bruce,
The
EngliJh
8/b/e,
pago
96).
The
Kin&
James Bible
is
a
lasting monu·
mrn.t
to
lhe c:reative geo.ius
or
a conu:ruttee
of all-but-forgotten Bible scholm. However,
most translations owe a debt
to
previou.s
translations
to
one degee or the
othu.
Tbe
King James
i.s
no ditrerenc. The trarulators
themselves commented: "...
So
if we bui!d–
in&
upon their foundatinn tba.t weut before
us,
and bem.g holpen by their labours, dn
endcuour {sic)
to
make that better whicb lefi
so
¡ood;
no man we are
sure. hath cause
to
mishke
us .• .'•
(O•r
English
Bibl•
fn
rloe
Making,
p.
S4).
Tbe Wycliffite Bíblc, Tyndale's, Cov·
crdale's, tbe Oreat Bib!e, and the Oeneva
Bíble
(aU
pn:decessors) had their
pam
to
WhyNOT?
by
David
Jon
Hill
Pretend You're God
Pul younelfin God's place. Wbat
if
you were God?
Wbat would you promíse people? Wbat would your purpose for human life
be? What rewards would you hold out for tbe fuithful? What delerrents
10
misconduCI would you enforce?
As
Ood, wbat would your fonnula for life be?
Would you favor a syslem replete with
t~boos
oo the eating
of
meat. and
then cause hungry people
10
worship the animals they could nol eal? Would you
promise those
samc
people the ullimate reward of the great notbingn= of
.Nirvana, where
each individual loses bis conmous identity by mergiog into the
great One, living forever bul not realiUog il?
Or would you espouse a central doctrine whicb demanded bellef on pain of
dealh - and then tille your rellgion
Peau?
Would you, in
this
sening, recom·
meod multiple marriages (up lo four al any one time), or would you put lbe
female of the species at a sub-human leve! by aDowing males
to
dívorce by
merely saying tbey want a divorce three times? Would your final
gift
lo true
believers in Ibis re.ligjon be life e lemal spenl lyiog in a hammoclr. belween lwo
palm trees in the midsl of a beautiful garden, while being fed
gapes.
dates, and
camel's
mill<.
by volupluous maideos? .
lf
that's unappealiog, you
as
God could inveot
a
religion dnminated by
a
powerful bieran:hy of human beings, self-commissiooed
to
spare no paio
of
the
body in order
10
savc the soul. Tbe end result of such
a
difficult religious life
would be to g:ue u pon a beatifle vision of,your glory for etemily, having no other
purpose than to siog your adulation
eoo
upon eoo.
As
God. your deterrent
10
miscondud in Ibis religion would be to
thre~ten
eterna) suffering in
UD·
imaginable agonies, suJTering in the 8ames of bell, forever fryiog but never
bumingup.
Surely
you
wouldn't be
n
Ood like that!
Pretend you're God. Wby not?
lf
you embodied
perfr:ct
love,
ü
your life was
e1emally self-sustaining,
if
you were
a
majesti<:, aD-powerful c:reator
God,
if
you
were fllled with
con.~ummate
joy,
if
you knew all the secrers of bealth, peace and
happiness, if you could create anydling your miod oould imagine,
if
you sum.med
up
all
the
laW$
of hannonious govemmcnt - wouldn't you lilce to
share,
totaDy,
y.our owo nature and life with your wotShippers? Wouldn't you wan110 invite the
brotherbood of
man
into your family, your own k.ingdom,
as
equals? You could
caD
them your sons aod reaDy mean it! You could chaoge them into spirit beings
just JiJee yourself,
ha
ve them see and lcnow you jusl like you really are, have thcm
sbare in your creation, govemment and family. Tbey could be busy, useful, and
purposeful for aU etemity. You could expand your family inflnitely. And ifsome
wanted no part of tbis great goal, you could just quickly end their wrelCb.ed
mortAl
existeoce in a moment IUld relum them
to
the uoconscious nothing from
which they carne- merciful, loving, k.tod, reasonable!
Wouldn'l you
liJe
e
to be
a
God lilce that?
Tbe trulb
is,
the sreat living
God
who made aU things including you
i5
til<e
this. He has one purpose - baving you join
him
and
bis
son in their family·
k.ingdom. sharing their ever-Uviog glory, forever, being Godas they are Ood.
play in tbe fonnation of tbe Autboriud Ver·
sion.
But so suocessful was the scriplutal
schOI·
anhip and literacy of the
KN
that
aU
prt·
•iOIU
&glish versioDS eventually fouud tbeir
way inco the ecclaiastica.l archives.
The prime mover behind thc tra.nslation
was, of oou=,
King
James
L
He wanted an
&glish translatioo tbat did.a't succumb
to.
gross partísan interpretations, an abundance
of disfiguring marginal notes, and e.mbar–
rassin¡ doctrinal bias.
In
1611, the truu·
lators offlcially presented
lhe
fruit of their
seholarly work to James l.
lt
is
not oommonly knowu tbat tbe
KN
b.as
$J.DOe:
onder¡ooe a series or revisions
(1613, 1629, 1638, 16Sl, 16S7, 1762, 1769).
However. tbese textual changes b.ave been
very minor ·m
impact.
leaving (or the most
parta 8xed and statie uuslation.
EngJisb language o1ade new versjons man–
datory for the modem world. Arcllaeologists
we~
u.ncovcrin.g an abu:odatlCe of
new
in!or·
mation about
the
culture and language of
Old and New Tes1ament Pales1ine.
F. F.
Bruce, nored British ..:holar. oomments:
.....
Tbe advances wbkb have ta.ken place
during the past tbree and a
balf
centuries
in
lmowledse of ori¡inal Languages and text of
tbc Bible bave. made ilS revision imprrative"
(The
Eng/11h
Bible,
p. 112).1ftbe reader will
remember the old
Engllsh
used in tbe quote
from the
King
James translators eartier in
thu article. be will easoly apprcciate the im·
perative need for acceptable alternativo
translaúo111 in modezn &glish.
In additooo
to
the Autbori%.ed Version
(presently found in most English·speaking
bomes), tbo up-to-date reader of the Bible
would
do
well
to
have at least onc otbe.r
reliable modem translation. Fortunately
many translations and paraphrased versions
are ava.ilable oa ourmodem. ma.dcel O
After nearly three hundred yem witbout
a signit\ca.nt revision, other translations
be·
carne vitally necessary. Clwlses in the
7