Reinventing Knowledge Final: The Strongest Form of Knowledge

As knowledge forms have progressed from folk, to oral, to written, and finally to print, institutions of knowledge have slowly graduated towards more formality. Because of this, it is easy to assume that with formality comes a loss of humanity, a loss of connection between learners. Therefore, among the four forms of knowledge, folk manifests itself as the most reasonably personal. However, this is not true. While folk knowledge at first appears to be the most collaborative and easily connective form of knowledge, the prior experience of individuals better indicates which knowledge form they connect to best.

Teaching knitting, a form of folk knowledge

Characterized by hands-on teaching and imparting of personal skills, folk knowledge allows instructors and students to connect as they share what they individually know. It includes menial tasks such as cooking and cleaning, art disciplines like playing the harp or performing ballet, or even technical skills like crocheting or braiding hair. Virtually any talent that can be taught to others is folk knowledge. Because teachers impart what they personally know, have practiced, and perfected, the teachers themselves are the knowledge institutions. Knowledge is given through them. In this way, learning a folk skill is a unique experience that cannot be learned from a book and cannot be retained through a speech. It has to be put into practice. By practicing, students of folk knowledge make that learning a part of life, personally connecting to it and those who practiced it before them.

For this reason, folk knowledge is often considered the knowledge medium that ties humans together most readily. However, not everyone has folk knowledge experiences. Even today, true folk knowledge is rare. In a time where acquired skills can be taught digitally through instructional videos, the humanness of folk knowledge starts to diminish. Humanness can still be found in other learning, though. It comes through personal experiences, especially those that occur as a child. These personal experiences are what make a form of knowledge pertinent to a person, not the knowledge itself. Individuals draw parallels to one another through similar previous experiences with a particular form a knowledge – that is when knowledge gains power.

Collage of modern children's literature

Children’s literature, for example, serves as a vehicle that allows students across the globe to draw parallels in their learning. As a form of print knowledge, children’s literature’s primary strength lies in its consistency and spread-ability. Since print knowledge allows the exact same thing to be duplicated multiple times over in an easily distributed form, children in differing regions have access to the exact same literature. Sharing in the same print culture, these children are able to draw strong ties to one another because their learning has been the same. They have read the same thing. Even if they share nothing of a personal sense (as they would with folk knowledge) they can still learn to connect to and collaborate with one another by building on the foundation of a unified print culture.

Connections can also be drawn through emotion, the principle strength of oral knowledge. Emotions are universal and delivery of a speech, play, song, etc. through oral knowledge allows participants to share in the same emotions. When a large group shares those strong emotions, they are unified, pulled together by the humanness of the collective emotions they feel. Although they do not work together to feel these emotions, they still can feel them simultaneously during a live performance. By sensing the collective emotion, participants grow closer as they share in the experience facilitated through oral knowledge, and from there can collaborate.



The Torah is an example of
written knowledge

Similarly, written knowledge also allows students to collectively appreciate knowledge as they experience hand-written texts. When calligraphy and hand written books were the only way instructors could preserve an idea, those ideas became highly important to learners. Owning a written document was rare and therefore the knowledge within it precious. A universal attitude of reverence towards the written word united students, and once again drew them together through their appreciation of knowledge.

Regardless of age or distance, students of all time periods come together as they relate their similar experience. Whether those experiences come about because of folk, print, oral or written knowledge is unimportant. Despite the changes knowledge will continue to undergo, personal experience will reign supreme, for everyone lives. Everyone has experiences. And those experiences will always lend themselves to knowledge. That will never change.