Two years ago, I sent out an e-mail to the CSPO community about my dismay at finding in my one-year-old’s “First Word” book at the time that the word “tractor” is, apparently, an incredibly important word despite the fact that <2% of the US population still lives on a farm.
I argued at the time that:
IF CSPO is about (among other things) long-term cultural change around S&T; AND
IF CSPO is serious about having fun while we work; AND
IF CSPO is a place that is family-friendly; THEN
CSPO needs to, as Helen Lovejoy of The Simpsons would say, “think of the children” by, for example:
· defining a “required” reading list of children’s books and
· creating our own CSPO-endorsed content by
o hijacking traditional children’s content (a la the title of this post)
o writing CSPO-inspired
§ primers (although “why?”-asking, three-year-olds need no introduction to the social construction of reality),
§ stories (“Good night cell phone//good night humidifier” – thanks, Dan),
§ alphabet books (think “’A’ is for ‘atom’, ‘B’ is for ‘bomb’…), etc.
My personal favorite is the Depression-era Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel (now available in both a shortened board-book version for younger children and the unabridged version), a story about technological unemployment in which the hero and Mary Ann, his steam shovel, are cast aside in favor of the newer diesel, gasoline and electric shovels. I was so smitten by the book, and it cast me along such a trajectory, that when I applied to colleges I strongly considered writing my Harvard essay (“on the book that most influenced you”) on Mike Mulligan (I got into Yale early and didn’t even apply to Harvard, however).
Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax is second of my top three, a more obvious choice, but the one that represents transgression for me because I read it well past bedtime, with a flashlight under my covers, because it so compelled me. With its Pandora’s box ending of a tiny, preserved hope in the form of a truffula seed, it was scarily cautionary without being too apocalyptic for a seven-year-old.
Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats from NIMH rounds out my medal trio – another obvious choice, but compared to the other two, this book brings out both the pragmatic and humane application of knowledge, even when the beings applying it are rats escaped from a research laboratory!
In response to my query two years ago, CSPO colleagues offered a variety of responses, some of which I catalogue here:
Dan Sarewitz, noting Dr. Seuss’s expert credentials, added “The Sneetches,” from The Sneeches and Other Stories, for its prescient tale of the futility of improving society through human enhancement technologies.
Shannon DiNapoli suggested The Magic Donkey by Carolyn Joyce for its introduction to the relationship between technological progress and the domestication of animals….
Erin Daly provided Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, in which a boy’s relationship with nature is transformed from one where a tree has intrinsic value to one where nature is utilized for profit, recreation, etc., and back again.
Owen Marshall contributed The Story of Babar for its frank (if disconcertingly neo-colonialist) discussion of indigenous knowledge systems and biodiversity.
And
Three blind mice! See how they run!
They thought stem cells would save their plight.
But only one was returned her sight,
So the other two began to fight.
Two blind mice!
Perhaps these examples will seed further discussion and contributions. The hand that rocks the cradle….
Comments
This week's random picks included The Rabbits, which is a scary, sad parable about colonialism (I think). I was pretty into it but the girls much preferred the book I Love Messes.
Messages or messes? A hard choice.
Jen