Good news for baby boomers - The Space Child's Mother Goose is back in print

Created by Barbara Griffith (University of Colorado at Boulder) on February 7, 2006

A lucky few of us fifties kids had our imaginations expanded by this wonderful book. As the Slashdot review (http://slashdot.org/books/01/10/24/1454251.shtml) pointed out, this book didn't just substitute modern words for old fashioned phrases, it actually introduced scientific and mathematic terminology and concepts. The footnotes and glosary ("The Answers") are as witty as the book.

Being given this book as a girl of the fifties was quite trippy, to anachronistically borrow a sixties phrase. It was a completely effective antidote to my Barbie doll collection. Of course, being raised in the home of an early IBM engineer didn't hurt either. This book seriously stimulates interest in astronomy, math, science, culture, history and foreign languages because it contains them all, presented in digestible but not shallow portions. It also serves as a vindication of phonics. Many educators downplay phonics because so many common English words of old origin are no longer spelled phonetically (through, cough, isle, aisle, ascent, and don't forget the silent 'e'). However, as we go upwards in education and complexity, phonics becomes a much more valuable tool for unlocking the pronunciation and meaning of words. An 'astrogator' probably has something to do with stars and space, for example .... Of course nowadays it's also a band of musicians, (http://www.astrogator.co.uk/) as is pretty much every other term and phrase.

Foreign language interest is stimulated by retranslating the first poem, "Probable-Possible, my black hen" into French, German, Greek, Swahili, and Chinese (complete with caligraphy). English takes a turn in the funhouse: the mouse on the mobius strip goes 'Flappity, Floppity, Flip!" Prophetically, the computer makes an appearance in the form of Geniac (http://www.noah.org/science/geniac/). We all know where that development led.

There is a stereotype that the fifties in America were dull, materialistic, conformist times. That was partly true, due to the McCarthy era and post World War II prosperity (http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html). But it was also a time of great introspection and challenges to traditional assumptions about how society should work. The Civil Rights movement achieved milestones (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html), and the beat generation wrote controversial books (http://www.heureka.clara.net/art/beat-generation.htm). Sputnik scared America (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/) and helped jump start the space race. Then, as now, America fell into self doubt and questioning. Were we falling behind foreign competition? Were our schools functioning properly and teaching the right subjects in the right way? Now we ask these questions in relation to India and China, but then we were in the thick of the Cold War (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/).

This book helped many kids see that math and science could be cool and fun. Getting kids to see this is an educational concern today. Why wasn't this book more popular? Well, it is making something of a comeback thanks to Purple House Press, where they specialize in bringing back the good old books of this era (http://www.purplehousepress.com/space.htm).

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		Good news for baby boomers - The Space Child's Mother Goose is back in print Created by Barbara Griffith (University of Colorado at Boulder) on February 7, 2006 Good news for baby boomers - The Space Child's Mother Goose is back in print A lucky few of us fifties kids had our imaginations expanded by this wonderful book. As the Slashdot review (http://slashdot.org/books/01/10/24/1454251.shtml) pointed out, this book didn't just substitute modern words for old fashioned phrases, it actually introduced scientific and mathematic terminology and concepts. The footnotes and glosary ("The Answers") are as witty as the book. Being given this book as a girl of the fifties was quite trippy, to anachronistically borrow a sixties phrase. It was a completely effective antidote to my Barbie doll collection. Of course, being raised in the home of an early IBM engineer didn't hurt either. This book seriously stimulates interest in astronomy, math, science, culture, history and foreign languages because it contains them all, presented in digestible but not shallow portions. It also serves as a vindication of phonics. Many educators downplay phonics because so many common English words of old origin are no longer spelled phonetically (through, cough, isle, aisle, ascent, and don't forget the silent 'e'). However, as we go upwards in education and complexity, phonics becomes a much more valuable tool for unlocking the pronunciation and meaning of words. An 'astrogator' probably has something to do with stars and space, for example .... Of course nowadays it's also a band of musicians, (http://www.astrogator.co.uk/) as is pretty much every other term and phrase. Foreign language interest is stimulated by retranslating the first poem, "Probable-Possible, my black hen" into French, German, Greek, Swahili, and Chinese (complete with caligraphy). English takes a turn in the funhouse: the mouse on the mobius strip goes 'Flappity, Floppity, Flip!" Prophetically, the computer makes an appearance in the form of Geniac (http://www.noah.org/science/geniac/). We all know where that development led. There is a stereotype that the fifties in America were dull, materialistic, conformist times. That was partly true, due to the McCarthy era and post World War II prosperity (http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html). But it was also a time of great introspection and challenges to traditional assumptions about how society should work. The Civil Rights movement achieved milestones (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html), and the beat generation wrote controversial books (http://www.heureka.clara.net/art/beat-generation.htm). Sputnik scared America (http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/) and helped jump start the space race. Then, as now, America fell into self doubt and questioning. Were we falling behind foreign competition? Were our schools functioning properly and teaching the right subjects in the right way? Now we ask these questions in relation to India and China, but then we were in the thick of the Cold War (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/). This book helped many kids see that math and science could be cool and fun. Getting kids to see this is an educational concern today. Why wasn't this book more popular? Well, it is making something of a comeback thanks to Purple House Press, where they specialize in bringing back the good old books of this era (http://www.purplehousepress.com/space.htm). book \| children \| Technology Barbara's blog Login or register to post comments 4144 reads
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