Technological apparatus--including video tapes, television sets, tape cassettes, tape players, phonograph records, films, and film projectors--is inappropriate for humanities classroom instruction and should be relegated to libraries and language labs. Post experience in trying to teach freshman rhetoric using specially prepared visual tapes on television showed both student resentment and boredom, and failure to effectively teach writing, a skill which depends on the instructor's personal attention. Because the literature and language which enhance and perpetuate the humanity of people were developed and are used by living people, they should be taught by living people. (JM)