Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
LARS'S LIBRARY: LITERARY LINKS
Read a nice profile of Wild Thing author Maurice Sendak in the UK Independent.
Some good examples of recent children's books in translation can be found in the L.A. Times Word Play's "Going global."
As well as The New York Times article about reading workshop referenced in my piece here on classics, I've come across two other essays that eloquently make the case for student choice in elementary, middle and high school reading: Dane Peters's "Who Should Decide What Students Read?" in Education Week, and novelist Susan Straight's disparaging look at the Accelerated Reading program in The New York Times.
Some good examples of recent children's books in translation can be found in the L.A. Times Word Play's "Going global."
As well as The New York Times article about reading workshop referenced in my piece here on classics, I've come across two other essays that eloquently make the case for student choice in elementary, middle and high school reading: Dane Peters's "Who Should Decide What Students Read?" in Education Week, and novelist Susan Straight's disparaging look at the Accelerated Reading program in The New York Times.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING: A FAMILY I KNOW
"Bay Area Mom Creates Online Tool To Tackle Autism" KPIX TV 11/23/09
I work with Pramila--the "Bay Area Mom" here--and her son Siddhu!
I work with Pramila--the "Bay Area Mom" here--and her son Siddhu!
Monday, November 23, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING: WHAT IS READING, ANYWAY?
"The Future of Reading" Library Journal 11/1/09
Found this while researching for a new essay on the website. The essay will be about valuing the attention, focus and comprehension skills involved in listening to an audio book as much as we value "basic" literacy skills--decoding and encoding written language. That means thinking of the audio book as its own kind of animal, and not an add-on, or as so often happens, a remedial tool. Well-meaning adults often tell struggling readers to only listen if they are reading, giving a message that listening and understanding stories and information is less valuable than reading. They are also making what could have been a successful learning moment into one that emphasizes a deficiency, and changing a pleasurable experience into a punitive one.
In Tom Peter's Library Journal essay, he advises librarians to stay on top of what is happening with the way books and and their content are delivered to the audience, and to be willing to adapt. He lists some fascinating possibilities, and notes that audio books are an area of growth in a somewhat moribund publishing industry.
Found this while researching for a new essay on the website. The essay will be about valuing the attention, focus and comprehension skills involved in listening to an audio book as much as we value "basic" literacy skills--decoding and encoding written language. That means thinking of the audio book as its own kind of animal, and not an add-on, or as so often happens, a remedial tool. Well-meaning adults often tell struggling readers to only listen if they are reading, giving a message that listening and understanding stories and information is less valuable than reading. They are also making what could have been a successful learning moment into one that emphasizes a deficiency, and changing a pleasurable experience into a punitive one.
In Tom Peter's Library Journal essay, he advises librarians to stay on top of what is happening with the way books and and their content are delivered to the audience, and to be willing to adapt. He lists some fascinating possibilities, and notes that audio books are an area of growth in a somewhat moribund publishing industry.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING: SCHOOLS NEED TO ENGAGE KIDS FIRST (HIGHER TEST SCORES WILL FOLLOW)
"Schools Need a Culture Shift: Bringing Passion, Fun and Collaboration Back to the Classroom" Education Week 11/16/09
Great commentary that made me remember two books I keep meaning to read: Kelly Gallagher's Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It
and Daniel Willingham's Why Don’t Students Like School?
Great commentary that made me remember two books I keep meaning to read: Kelly Gallagher's Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It
and Daniel Willingham's Why Don’t Students Like School?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING: EXERCISE AND THE BRAIN
Last night, I went to a Parents Education Network presentation by John Ratey, author of the recently released Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. I came away quite impressed with the correlation demonstrated by research that connects exercise to cognition, behavor, motivation and focus. I also was inspired to brainstorm ways to incorporate more movement into my sessions with children. Ratey pointed out that human evolution owes a great deal to the need to move, and that the bigger the brain animals have, the more they need to play (not video games, but physical, rough-and-tumble play). Thanks to the internet, a similar presentation can be watched on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmc0ERKfjP0.
Coincidentally, I'm reading Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong's Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education. Vygotky's work really tied in to the importance of play and physical interaction with caregivers and peers to cognitive development. In conjunction with that idea, Ratey mentioned a book which I would like to read: Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown.
Updating this on November 18 to add on "Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Anxious" from The New York Times Well Blog.
Coincidentally, I'm reading Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong's Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education. Vygotky's work really tied in to the importance of play and physical interaction with caregivers and peers to cognitive development. In conjunction with that idea, Ratey mentioned a book which I would like to read: Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown.
Updating this on November 18 to add on "Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Anxious" from The New York Times Well Blog.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING
"Social Medicine" Olivia Judson Blog/The New York Times 11/10/09
If you haven't ever checked in on Olivia Judson's "The Wild Side" blog and do because of this link, you're in for a treat. She's worth checking in on from time to time, even if you think, like me, you're someone who is not so good at understanding science. In this essay, she makes a clinically convincing case for positivity.
If you haven't ever checked in on Olivia Judson's "The Wild Side" blog and do because of this link, you're in for a treat. She's worth checking in on from time to time, even if you think, like me, you're someone who is not so good at understanding science. In this essay, she makes a clinically convincing case for positivity.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING
"Education dollars spent on pricey seminars instead of kids" Robin Hanson, SF Examiner 11/14/09
Robin is an outspoken advocate for kids and parents navigating the treacherous waters of education politics and individual educational plans (IEPs) because she is a mother who has had to navigate them herself.
It's discouraging when school districts are so pressured to reduce costs that they spend what little money they have on preventing all children from succeeding.
Robin is an outspoken advocate for kids and parents navigating the treacherous waters of education politics and individual educational plans (IEPs) because she is a mother who has had to navigate them herself.
It's discouraging when school districts are so pressured to reduce costs that they spend what little money they have on preventing all children from succeeding.
Friday, November 13, 2009
LARS'S LIBRARY: LITERARY LINKS
Find some classics that are not always on required reading lists, recommended by children's author Lesley Blume, on NPR.
Are children's classics like Where the Wild Things Are and The Fantastic Mr. Fox too scary as movies? A.O. Scott of The New York Times doesn't think so.
Are children's classics like Where the Wild Things Are and The Fantastic Mr. Fox too scary as movies? A.O. Scott of The New York Times doesn't think so.
LARS'S LIBRARY: WHERE THE CLASSIC THINGS ARE
When I first heard that Where the Wild Things was to be made into a movie, I was appalled. As with all adaptations of well-loved works, the question arose, “Why?” Why muck up a masterpiece so perfectly done, so self-contained and so succinct?
Then I read that Maurice Sendak wanted Spike Jonze to make the movie, indeed, urged him to do so for quite some time, despite Jonze having many of the same objections as I did. And that Jonze had collaborated with Dave Eggers on the screenplay.
I got interested and started thinking about what makes me rate a book as “classic” and untouchable. I turned my questions around. Why should any work be sacrosanct? If a work is well-loved, shouldn’t it be re-examined and re-interpreted?
And what makes a children’s book “classic,” anyway?
I wasn’t alone. In the days preceding the release of the movie, The Boston Globe’s Ty Burr examined Hollywood retellings of children’s books in "Where the Wonder Goes." In a provocative essay in The New York Times, “Where the Wild Things Weren’t,” Bruce Handy questioned whether children actually like the books their parents call classics. Some of us, he wrote, didn’t like Where the Wild Things Are or The Wind in the Willows.
So what does make a children’s book a classic? Its appeal to adults or children or both? Or is it the subject matter—profound thematically, or boundary-breaking in the way it deals with childhood struggles (certainly the case with Where the Wild Things Are)?
Maybe it’s best to be flexible. Everything changes. Lists such as the one on Wikipedia, which limits itself to books “published at least 90 years ago…still enjoyed by children today,” are valuable references. But the criteria are so narrow.
I prefer the looser parameters set at by Eden Ross Lipson, former children’s book editor of The NewYork Times Book Review. As paraphrased by Dwight Garner in an excellent piece called “The Reading Life: What Makes a Children’s Classic” (with lots of great reading suggestions in the readers’ comments):
“It isn’t the critics’ reviews. It’s whether your children choose to read the book to their children, and so on, an organic and generational process of elimination.”
That means, though, that it’s adults who are driving the process, as they remember, perhaps misremember, revise, and codify their own childhood experience. Nothing’s wrong with that, and children benefit from exposure to the books in a recognized canon. However, I believe it’s important that we don’t get too stuck in a groove, and too tied into that canon.
At the same time as all the adult-engendered hoopla over Where the Wild Things Are, another cultural phenomenon took place, this one clearly driven by kids. It was the release of the latest book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Dog Days. The day it came out, book stores were jammed with anxious children. Almost immediately, it jumped to the top of bestseller lists. The publisher pushed the initial printing up from three to four million copies.
Is Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days a classic? Using Lipson’s guidelines, we can’t know until the millions of kids who are reading it grow up, since it’s up to adults to decide the answer to that question. What is more important is that millions of kids are reading it.
Parents may complain that Dog Days is “a poor choice for good character building in your children,” but there is no doubt author Jeff Kinney has struck a chord that resonates deeply with the elementary and middle school audience.
It matters that kids see that they can make a book a success, and that reading is worthwhile. How many children are turned off by reading because it’s something they have to do?
Some schools are beginning to allow students to choose their own books. This approach, known as reading workshop, recognizes that what we think children should read is not always what they want to read, and that children, like us, have different tastes.
It’s an approach that requires more work by teachers and parents because they can’t fall back into familiar territory—the “classics.” But it could lead to more reading by more kids, and perhaps to the startling discovery by more adults of new classics.
For the record, Lars’s library contains many of the books on the Wikipedia list of children’s classics, as well as many Newbery Award winners. I believe that a number of the re-evaluated books in “Where the Wild Things Weren’t”—Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh, Eloise—are classics. I don’t see Wimpy Kid as a classic. I have read the first three books (and you can find them in my library), and have been caught laughing out loud in the process. Eventually a young reader will probably get me to read Dog Days. And I really liked Where the Wild Things Are, the movie.
Then I read that Maurice Sendak wanted Spike Jonze to make the movie, indeed, urged him to do so for quite some time, despite Jonze having many of the same objections as I did. And that Jonze had collaborated with Dave Eggers on the screenplay.
I got interested and started thinking about what makes me rate a book as “classic” and untouchable. I turned my questions around. Why should any work be sacrosanct? If a work is well-loved, shouldn’t it be re-examined and re-interpreted?
And what makes a children’s book “classic,” anyway?
I wasn’t alone. In the days preceding the release of the movie, The Boston Globe’s Ty Burr examined Hollywood retellings of children’s books in "Where the Wonder Goes." In a provocative essay in The New York Times, “Where the Wild Things Weren’t,” Bruce Handy questioned whether children actually like the books their parents call classics. Some of us, he wrote, didn’t like Where the Wild Things Are or The Wind in the Willows.
So what does make a children’s book a classic? Its appeal to adults or children or both? Or is it the subject matter—profound thematically, or boundary-breaking in the way it deals with childhood struggles (certainly the case with Where the Wild Things Are)?
Maybe it’s best to be flexible. Everything changes. Lists such as the one on Wikipedia, which limits itself to books “published at least 90 years ago…still enjoyed by children today,” are valuable references. But the criteria are so narrow.
I prefer the looser parameters set at by Eden Ross Lipson, former children’s book editor of The NewYork Times Book Review. As paraphrased by Dwight Garner in an excellent piece called “The Reading Life: What Makes a Children’s Classic” (with lots of great reading suggestions in the readers’ comments):
“It isn’t the critics’ reviews. It’s whether your children choose to read the book to their children, and so on, an organic and generational process of elimination.”
That means, though, that it’s adults who are driving the process, as they remember, perhaps misremember, revise, and codify their own childhood experience. Nothing’s wrong with that, and children benefit from exposure to the books in a recognized canon. However, I believe it’s important that we don’t get too stuck in a groove, and too tied into that canon.
At the same time as all the adult-engendered hoopla over Where the Wild Things Are, another cultural phenomenon took place, this one clearly driven by kids. It was the release of the latest book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Dog Days. The day it came out, book stores were jammed with anxious children. Almost immediately, it jumped to the top of bestseller lists. The publisher pushed the initial printing up from three to four million copies.
Is Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days a classic? Using Lipson’s guidelines, we can’t know until the millions of kids who are reading it grow up, since it’s up to adults to decide the answer to that question. What is more important is that millions of kids are reading it.
Parents may complain that Dog Days is “a poor choice for good character building in your children,” but there is no doubt author Jeff Kinney has struck a chord that resonates deeply with the elementary and middle school audience.
It matters that kids see that they can make a book a success, and that reading is worthwhile. How many children are turned off by reading because it’s something they have to do?
Some schools are beginning to allow students to choose their own books. This approach, known as reading workshop, recognizes that what we think children should read is not always what they want to read, and that children, like us, have different tastes.
It’s an approach that requires more work by teachers and parents because they can’t fall back into familiar territory—the “classics.” But it could lead to more reading by more kids, and perhaps to the startling discovery by more adults of new classics.
For the record, Lars’s library contains many of the books on the Wikipedia list of children’s classics, as well as many Newbery Award winners. I believe that a number of the re-evaluated books in “Where the Wild Things Weren’t”—Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh, Eloise—are classics. I don’t see Wimpy Kid as a classic. I have read the first three books (and you can find them in my library), and have been caught laughing out loud in the process. Eventually a young reader will probably get me to read Dog Days. And I really liked Where the Wild Things Are, the movie.
LARS'S LIBRARY: RECENTLY READ
Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. The Mutant Mosquitoes from Mercury by Dav Pilkey--Something some adults may not realize is that Dav Pilkey's phenomenally popular Captain Underpants series is not written at an easy reading level. Sometimes criticized for their bathroom humor and purposely misspelled words, the Captain Underpants books can actually be a motivator for reluctant readers to decode complex words and even deal with complex thoughts--there's much that must be inferred. For those readers for whom they are too difficult, however, Pilkey has put together the Ricky Ricotta series. Kids love them, and if you care, they veer away from the potty jokes. In fact, since each volume features a villain from a different planet, and often contains a few math puzzlers, you might even make a case that they have peripheral "educational" value beyond getting children to read. If, like me, you do like the sudversive nature of Pilkey's work, rest assured that you will still find a good dose of irreverent attitude.
Herbert's Wormhole by Peter Nelson--Borrowing liberally from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (nerdy, wiseacre protagonist, purposely primitive drawings), this "novel in cartoons" (delightfully drawn by Rohitash Rao) tells the tale of ten-year-old video-game addict Alex Filby, whose parents want to get him outside. They arrange a "playdate" with Alex's even nerdier neighbor, Herbert Slewg. Herbert, it turns out, has invented a way to time travel. The boys end up in a future world ruled by aliens who disguise their disgusting squid-like appearance with toupees and false mustaches. As you might imagine, much hilarity ensues. The final battle scene, where Alex, Herbert and Sammi, their cute and highly competent girl neighbor, team up against the aliens, is a total blast.
The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh--It's almost too bad that Harriet the Spy has made such a mark as a "classic," because each of the four novels Fitzhugh wrote during her all too brief life are quite extraordinary and ground-breaking. A sequel to Harriet, The Long Secret contains some surprising revelations about one of the characters in that first book. Written well before Judy Blume's Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret., it presaged the same issues of pubescent rites of passage and religion. It's a fantastic book, as are Fitzhugh's other Harriet book, Sport, and the stunning Nobody's Family Ever Changes.
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor--Beddor's premise--that Lewis Carroll misunderstood Alice (actually Alyss), who was trying to tell him about a parallel world gone awry--makes for an engrossing fantasy/historical novel with lots of page-turning action. The author's flippant, glib tone borders on too much, but works if you like sophomoric humor, I do. And you won't ever think of the Mad Hatter in quite the same way again.
Herbert's Wormhole by Peter Nelson--Borrowing liberally from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (nerdy, wiseacre protagonist, purposely primitive drawings), this "novel in cartoons" (delightfully drawn by Rohitash Rao) tells the tale of ten-year-old video-game addict Alex Filby, whose parents want to get him outside. They arrange a "playdate" with Alex's even nerdier neighbor, Herbert Slewg. Herbert, it turns out, has invented a way to time travel. The boys end up in a future world ruled by aliens who disguise their disgusting squid-like appearance with toupees and false mustaches. As you might imagine, much hilarity ensues. The final battle scene, where Alex, Herbert and Sammi, their cute and highly competent girl neighbor, team up against the aliens, is a total blast.
The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh--It's almost too bad that Harriet the Spy has made such a mark as a "classic," because each of the four novels Fitzhugh wrote during her all too brief life are quite extraordinary and ground-breaking. A sequel to Harriet, The Long Secret contains some surprising revelations about one of the characters in that first book. Written well before Judy Blume's Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret., it presaged the same issues of pubescent rites of passage and religion. It's a fantastic book, as are Fitzhugh's other Harriet book, Sport, and the stunning Nobody's Family Ever Changes.
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor--Beddor's premise--that Lewis Carroll misunderstood Alice (actually Alyss), who was trying to tell him about a parallel world gone awry--makes for an engrossing fantasy/historical novel with lots of page-turning action. The author's flippant, glib tone borders on too much, but works if you like sophomoric humor, I do. And you won't ever think of the Mad Hatter in quite the same way again.
WORLD OF LEARNING
"Dyslexia May Make It Tough to Tune Out School Noise" Yahoo! News/HealthDay 11/11/09
"Writing Study Ties Autism To Motor-Skill Problems" NPR 11/11/09
"4th-grade homework: Good luck, kid" Chicago Tribune 11/10/09
"The internet is killing storytelling" London Times 11/5/09
"The Science of Success" The Atlantic 12/09
"For Improving Early Literacy, Reading Comics Is No Child's Play" Science Daily 11/6/09
"A Powerful Identity, a Vanishing Diagnosis" The New York Times 11/2/09
"Teaching students with autism" eSchoolNews 11/1/09
"How students are cheated out of higher math education" Robin Hansen, San Franciso Examiner 10/30/09
"No Einstein in Your Crib? Get a Refund" The New York Times 10/23/09
"'Platooning' Instruction" Harvard Education Letter 11-12/09
"Kids Master Mathematics When They're Challenged But Supported" Edutopia 10/09
"Rediscovering the 'Pygmalion Effect'" Education Week 10/23/09
"No Success Like Failure?: Examining the 'No Effects' Phenomenon in Education Research" Education Week 10/21/09
"For Some Parents, Shouting Is the New Spanking" The New York Times 10/21/09
"Internet addiction linked to ADHD, depression in teens" CNN 10/5/09
"How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect" The New York Times 10/5/09
"Thinking literally: The surprising ways that metaphors shape your world" The Boston Globe 9/27/09
"Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?" The New York Times 9/27/09
"Brain Scans Link ADHD to Biological Flaw Tied to Motivation" The Washington Post 9/22/09
"Phys Ed: What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter? The New York Times 9/16/09
"Why Can't She Walk to School?" The New York Times 9/12/09
"Let the Children Play (Some More)" The New Yorkk Times Happy Days Blog 9/2/09
"Why Do Kids Dislike School?" The Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog 8/31/09
"Students Get New Assignment: Pick Books You Like" The New York Times
"Soothe Back-to-School Anxiety, Teach Kids to Relax" Yahoo! News
"Writing Study Ties Autism To Motor-Skill Problems" NPR 11/11/09
"4th-grade homework: Good luck, kid" Chicago Tribune 11/10/09
"The internet is killing storytelling" London Times 11/5/09
"The Science of Success" The Atlantic 12/09
"For Improving Early Literacy, Reading Comics Is No Child's Play" Science Daily 11/6/09
"A Powerful Identity, a Vanishing Diagnosis" The New York Times 11/2/09
"Teaching students with autism" eSchoolNews 11/1/09
"How students are cheated out of higher math education" Robin Hansen, San Franciso Examiner 10/30/09
"No Einstein in Your Crib? Get a Refund" The New York Times 10/23/09
"'Platooning' Instruction" Harvard Education Letter 11-12/09
"Kids Master Mathematics When They're Challenged But Supported" Edutopia 10/09
"Rediscovering the 'Pygmalion Effect'" Education Week 10/23/09
"No Success Like Failure?: Examining the 'No Effects' Phenomenon in Education Research" Education Week 10/21/09
"For Some Parents, Shouting Is the New Spanking" The New York Times 10/21/09
"Internet addiction linked to ADHD, depression in teens" CNN 10/5/09
"How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect" The New York Times 10/5/09
"Thinking literally: The surprising ways that metaphors shape your world" The Boston Globe 9/27/09
"Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control?" The New York Times 9/27/09
"Brain Scans Link ADHD to Biological Flaw Tied to Motivation" The Washington Post 9/22/09
"Phys Ed: What Sort of Exercise Can Make You Smarter? The New York Times 9/16/09
"Why Can't She Walk to School?" The New York Times 9/12/09
"Let the Children Play (Some More)" The New Yorkk Times Happy Days Blog 9/2/09
"Why Do Kids Dislike School?" The Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog 8/31/09
"Students Get New Assignment: Pick Books You Like" The New York Times
"Soothe Back-to-School Anxiety, Teach Kids to Relax" Yahoo! News
RECENT NEWS: CHILDREN AS EXPLORERS
Many years ago, parents smoked and drank in front of their children. People were sympathetic when mothers and fathers spanked unruly children. No one wore seat belts in moving automobiles or safety helmets when riding bikes. Elements of risk, danger and abuse were permitted in child-rearing that are unacceptable today. It’s good that society is showing more concern with its most important mandate: to protect our young.
But we’ve lost something. In an article in The New York Review of Books that previewed his latest work, Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon puts it this way: “The land ruled by children, to which a kid might exile himself for at least some portion of every day from the neighboring kingdom of adulthood, has in large part been taken over, co-opted, colonized, and finally absorbed by the neighbors.”
My parents were not only used to their children being out of the house in undisclosed locations, they sometimes ordered us to get there as quickly as possible. Of course, there were boundaries within which we were to stay (boundaries we might ignore), but there were parts of every day where children determined the activities and established the rules.
We knew our surroundings in an intimate and concrete way—all the hiding places, dark and scary places, comforting and familiar places, who was mean, who was nice, who was neat, who was messy. Well before school lessons about history and geography, we had our own internal schema for those subjects, and our own set of regulations for behavior and social interaction.
Today, it’s harder for kids to learn those things on their own. Chabon mentions the example of a nine-year-old girl in his neighborhood who lives three doors down from a nine-year-old boy. Both of them have lived in the neighborhood their entire lives. Yet they had never met.
This summer, I struck up a conversation with a mother sitting next to me at a presentation on assistive technology. She talked about her son in middle school and a “free night” parents had organized at a community center. She had been surprised at the kids' confusion about what to do, and once that was decided, how to organize things. She complained they were too used to structured activities supervised by adults.
I have been surprised by children who can show me where California is on a map of the United States, but are baffled when I ask them where the bay is. The San Francisco Bay is immediately in front of my office building. Kids who might know the name of their city and street seem unaware they live on a peninsula with a ridge of small mountains running down its center, next to an ocean.
I wish I had a solution, a way for children to escape what Chabon calls the “door-to-door, all-encompassing escort service that we adults have contrived,” that left adults feeling that they have been responsible, that children are safe. It’s a touchy area, as seen by all the controversy surrounding New York Sun columnist Lenore Skenazy’s decision last year to let her nine-year-old ride the subway on his own. Children seen walking alone have prompted adults to call the police.
“If children are not permitted,” says Chabon, “to be adventurers and explorers as children, what will become of the world of adventure, of stories, of literature itself?”
But we’ve lost something. In an article in The New York Review of Books that previewed his latest work, Manhood for Amateurs, Michael Chabon puts it this way: “The land ruled by children, to which a kid might exile himself for at least some portion of every day from the neighboring kingdom of adulthood, has in large part been taken over, co-opted, colonized, and finally absorbed by the neighbors.”
My parents were not only used to their children being out of the house in undisclosed locations, they sometimes ordered us to get there as quickly as possible. Of course, there were boundaries within which we were to stay (boundaries we might ignore), but there were parts of every day where children determined the activities and established the rules.
We knew our surroundings in an intimate and concrete way—all the hiding places, dark and scary places, comforting and familiar places, who was mean, who was nice, who was neat, who was messy. Well before school lessons about history and geography, we had our own internal schema for those subjects, and our own set of regulations for behavior and social interaction.
Today, it’s harder for kids to learn those things on their own. Chabon mentions the example of a nine-year-old girl in his neighborhood who lives three doors down from a nine-year-old boy. Both of them have lived in the neighborhood their entire lives. Yet they had never met.
This summer, I struck up a conversation with a mother sitting next to me at a presentation on assistive technology. She talked about her son in middle school and a “free night” parents had organized at a community center. She had been surprised at the kids' confusion about what to do, and once that was decided, how to organize things. She complained they were too used to structured activities supervised by adults.
I have been surprised by children who can show me where California is on a map of the United States, but are baffled when I ask them where the bay is. The San Francisco Bay is immediately in front of my office building. Kids who might know the name of their city and street seem unaware they live on a peninsula with a ridge of small mountains running down its center, next to an ocean.
I wish I had a solution, a way for children to escape what Chabon calls the “door-to-door, all-encompassing escort service that we adults have contrived,” that left adults feeling that they have been responsible, that children are safe. It’s a touchy area, as seen by all the controversy surrounding New York Sun columnist Lenore Skenazy’s decision last year to let her nine-year-old ride the subway on his own. Children seen walking alone have prompted adults to call the police.
“If children are not permitted,” says Chabon, “to be adventurers and explorers as children, what will become of the world of adventure, of stories, of literature itself?”
Sunday, November 8, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING
LARS'S LIBRARY: RECENTLY READ
Onion John by Joseph Krumgold--The Newbery Award winner from 1960, Onion John is an extraordinary book, ostensibly about twelve-year-old Andy Rusch's friendship with the town eccentric and how that helps Andy and his father to work out the problems fathers and sons have with expectations. But it's really about the listening and looking—really listening and looking—that children like Andy do. Although we adults often criticize children for lacking focus, this is something they are often much better at than their elders. We can learn as much from their open eyes and ears, as they can from our experienced ones. Middle schoolers will appreciate this.
The Savage by David Almond and Dave McKean--Ooooo...it's dark, but delectable. Like its protagonist, Blue Baker, don't a lot of boys (including this rather old one)--and for that matter a lot of girls--desire the truly wild? As Blue puts it, "I've never been one for stories. I couldn't stand all that stuff about wizards and fairies and 'once upon a time' and 'they all lived happily ever after.' That's not what life's like. Me, I wanted blood and guts and adventures...." That's what Blue gives us as he comes to terms with the death of his father and a class bully. Maybe not for the very gentle or genteel, but there are a lot of middle schoolers with inner savages I've run into. And they're going to love the nearly graphic novel format with art by the stellar Dave McKean.
The Savage by David Almond and Dave McKean--Ooooo...it's dark, but delectable. Like its protagonist, Blue Baker, don't a lot of boys (including this rather old one)--and for that matter a lot of girls--desire the truly wild? As Blue puts it, "I've never been one for stories. I couldn't stand all that stuff about wizards and fairies and 'once upon a time' and 'they all lived happily ever after.' That's not what life's like. Me, I wanted blood and guts and adventures...." That's what Blue gives us as he comes to terms with the death of his father and a class bully. Maybe not for the very gentle or genteel, but there are a lot of middle schoolers with inner savages I've run into. And they're going to love the nearly graphic novel format with art by the stellar Dave McKean.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
