Toffler and Then Some

I got dinged the other day by Larry Bedenbaugh, from the University of Central Florida, and an attendee of last week’s presentations for the Progress Energy – UCF Leadership Institute. He corrects a quote on the opening slide of my Redefining Literacy presentation, which I have miss attributed. I’m posting his comment here to make available to you the entire quote, in red.  It’s good

On the opening slide for the “Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century”presentation, you include a quote, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn,unlearn, and relearn,” which you (as do many others) attribute to Alvin Toffler. However, in the interest, of seeking the truth and giving credit where credit is due, this thought was not originated by Toffler.The thought did appear in his book “Future Shock,” but Alvin attributes it to psychologist Herbert Gerjouy and cites a personal interview. The full quote is: “The new education must teach the individual how to classify and reclassify information, how to evaluate its veracity, how to change categories when necessary, how to move from the concrete to the abstract and back, how to look at problems from a new direction -how to teach himself. Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn” (p.414). What I always point out when I use this quote is the date; “Future Shock” was originally published in 1970. (In fairness to those that cite Toffler, he did use the attributed quote in the foreword he wrote for”Rethinking the Future” edited by Rowan Gibson).

Bedenbaugh, Larry. “Thoughts from Progress Energy Leadership Institute.” E-mail to David Warlick.7 Sep 2006.

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