You'd want to have lots of exciting images in it. You'd want pictures that provoke kids to crave adventure and seek out awe-inspiring events. Let some other book prepare kids for a life of quiet desperation and bureaucracy. This one would show the cubs what it would be like to be a lion!
Kids textbooks should be awe-inspiring! They need to contain pictures like this one of what could pass for King Kong's island. The feeling of menace is palpable! It's also a picture that's full of hope and aspiration. It seems to say, "If you have the guts to get here I'll show you wonders beyond anything you've ever imagined!"
A terrific image for a kid! Earnest and competent adults risk their lives for what they believe on the surface of a mysterious ocean far away from home!It probably sounds like I'm trying to turn kids into soldiers or pirates. That's because I only have the bandwidth for four pictures so I'm limited to expressing a single thought here. Of course there's more to life and textbooks than what I've presented here.
There would have to be lots of maps in the book. Kids love maps especially when they're illustrated as beautifully as this one. There used to be lots of visionary, artist-conceived maps, especially in the 1910s to 1930s. Present-day maps are merely informational.
Is that top picture an illustration of a normally peace-loving and spiritual Native American struggling against the oppression of Colonialistic invaders?
ReplyDeleteSee ya
Steve
No Steve, I believe they are praying together.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see a return to filmstrips with pieces of hair stuck to them. Kids today are so busy with soccer and archery lessons and judo, and a nice afternoon nap could send those SAT scores through the roof.
ReplyDeleteTextbooks IIRC are pretty dull affairs alright. I think the problem lies in the inescapable fact that school curriculums are severely proscribed by very few organizations/governments...and that keeps a few publishers in business with their textbooks.
ReplyDeleteIn a private school there's a little more leeway but even then the school has to jump through state and national hoops to meet accredidation.
As in N.C. Wyeth's time, though, it's still perfectly possible to invest kids with all this good stuff--you just have to do it at home. In fact, you have to do virtually all the real educating at home, imho(except for math, and who cares about that?).
Wow, those pictures are really amazing, especially the sketch of the island.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head re: using illustrations to bring the reader into the scenario. Excellent illustrations help the reader, especially a younger reader, understand the topic being discussed because it really brings the young reader into the scenario.
Brian and anonymous are absolutely right, too. The focus of public education (in general) is changing from learning and thinking to "memorizing for tests" (thanks to "No Child Left Behind"), and that reflects in the newer textbooks. They're bland compared to the textbooks that I had when I was a child.
WOW! those indian & pirate illustrations are KILLER
ReplyDeleteNC Wyeth rocks! I'd buy any book he illustrated. Sometimes I wish illustrators like him (phff! not today) would do some work for the Wall Street Journal... I'd be filthy rich!
ReplyDeleteI concur with Eddie's comments about textbooks (at least in introductory courses)...textbooks should incite interest in a field. Once a person becomes fascinated in a subject, they will find additional, more technical resources.
ReplyDeleteAs an entomologist, I have found it difficult to interest other people in biology. Therefore, I created a comic book series to introduce people to concepts in biology. It is a series about a lumberjack that wrestles wildlife...and continuously loses. It is acceptable to find defeat when tusseling with an alligator but how can anyone lose to an orchid? In addition to introducing biodiversity, this comic discusses concepts such as adaptive radiation and kin selection.
I'm surprised that no one commented on the map. Didn't anyone think it was beautiful!? Maybe I printed it too small.
ReplyDeleteYour website has a useful information for beginners like me.
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