Lesson Plans of the Past

The Little film about Little Books I saw not that long ago. I don't think I have laughed so whole heatedly in a while as I did watching moments of the film. Some very intriguing clips from passages in the books and the way in which they represent life at that time was a lesson for me in itself. Noticing how some names where capitalized and others weren't is particularly interesting when some of the books talked about the bible. I remember books growing up and the ones I remember the most had personified animals in them. This seems a very old and successful idea for children lesson plans. I had to laugh about how accurate some of the books lessons where about the dangers in daily life. "Don't drink from a hot tea pot! Don't get crushed under a horse carriage!" I think the illustrations got to me because I cannot think of any type today that can match there "true accuracy" about life danger lessons. I'm not sure at what point a child reads for inquiry beyond what their given to know. The film captures this idea of a child growing in knowledge beyond the letters and pages of early learning. It shows the wanderlust of a world apart from the household. In turn it also shows the construction of the little books and critiques societal thought about that world without saying anything, just showing the pages and clips of passages. It reminds me of reading old national geographic magazines. The spectrum of geographic study is very different from the 1940s contrasted with the 1980s. It's different because we learn more and different because we don't remember what we learn but in fact relearn what was forgotten. A little bit like a centrifugal lesson according to.....what his name again? Well, that's my most prominent thought about the film so far but I'm sure many connections will be made to Don Quixote as I try to read six hundred pages in due time.