:📡 Dispatch: Rhythmics and the Real Three R’sBy Bradley Ramsey Appearing with “Reading, Writing, and Rhythmics” in the October 15 Archive of Deep Ledger

The title Reading, Writing, and Rhythmics in this issue of Deep Ledger is evocative—but it also warrants a correction. It echoes the well-known phrase “the Three R’s”—Reading, ’Riting, and ’Rithmetic—a triad often misinterpreted as literal. In truth, the phrase was coined as a phonetic jest, likely in the early 1800s, and attributed to British MP Sir William Curtis. None of the words begin with “R,” and that irony is part of its mnemonic charm.

Yet the phrase persists because it captures something elemental: the foundational skills of literacy, expression, and calculation. And while “Rhythmics” may seem like a deviation, it’s actually a continuation. Rhythmics, as defined in this issue, is not musical ornament—it’s structural cognition. It’s how we read systems, write resistance, and feel the pulse of culture.

To clarify:

• The “Three R’s” were coined as rhetorical play, not curriculum.

• They reflect phonetic humor, not etymological precision.

• But they resonate with deeper linguistic roots:

  • Reckoning (from arithmetic)

  • Rhetoric (from writing)

  • Reading as ritual and recognition

So while Reading, Writing, and Rhythmics may appear to misquote the classic triad, it actually expands it. It reclaims rhythm as a cognitive act. It invites us to read not just text, but tempo. To write not just words, but resistance. To reckon not just numbers, but myth.

This dispatch enters the Archive not as correction alone—but as expansion. The Three R’s were always more than letters. They were frequencies. And now, Rhythmics joins them.