CCBC-Net Archives
[CCBC-Net] Reading like a child
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Perry Nodelman <perry_nodelman>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:01:18 -0500
On 21-Jul-09, at 7:08 AM, Sally Miller wrote:
>
> I guess the point I'm tying to make is that, in my childhood, I
> may have
> been manipulated when I was reading, but I was safe, and I think I
> would
> have felt less safe if I had learned young to read critically. Could
> it be
> that in today's world, we can no longer allow children the luxury of
> being
> "uncritical" in their reading?
Fascinating. I'm interested that, as you suggested earlier in your message, you also knew you weren't safe ("sometimes, in my own experience, life was a lot more dangerous and more hard-hearted than the life in my books"). So the safety was already an illusion you were aware of as an illusion. You were already, in other words, a critical thinker? That you then chose to use your perception as a critical thinker as a basis for preferring he more ideal world of the books, and to use "the refuge of the library and the books in there to reassure me that what I longed for did exist" suggests how varied responses to having a critical awareness might be. Someone else might have got mad at the books for lying, but you found a way of reading them for the confirmation of better possibilities than the ones you were actually aware of in your own life. I like the idea of a young person being so aware of how unrealistically utopian many texts for young people are and yet finding a good reason for celebrating and enjoying that.
Perry
_____________ Perry Nodelman http://pernodel.wordpress.com/
Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 11:01:18 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:01:18 -0500
On 21-Jul-09, at 7:08 AM, Sally Miller wrote:
>
> I guess the point I'm tying to make is that, in my childhood, I
> may have
> been manipulated when I was reading, but I was safe, and I think I
> would
> have felt less safe if I had learned young to read critically. Could
> it be
> that in today's world, we can no longer allow children the luxury of
> being
> "uncritical" in their reading?
Fascinating. I'm interested that, as you suggested earlier in your message, you also knew you weren't safe ("sometimes, in my own experience, life was a lot more dangerous and more hard-hearted than the life in my books"). So the safety was already an illusion you were aware of as an illusion. You were already, in other words, a critical thinker? That you then chose to use your perception as a critical thinker as a basis for preferring he more ideal world of the books, and to use "the refuge of the library and the books in there to reassure me that what I longed for did exist" suggests how varied responses to having a critical awareness might be. Someone else might have got mad at the books for lying, but you found a way of reading them for the confirmation of better possibilities than the ones you were actually aware of in your own life. I like the idea of a young person being so aware of how unrealistically utopian many texts for young people are and yet finding a good reason for celebrating and enjoying that.
Perry
_____________ Perry Nodelman http://pernodel.wordpress.com/
Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 11:01:18 AM CDT
