Melissa Stewart posted the link to this YouTube to the New England SCBWI listserv with the subject "How 21st Century Learners Look at the World."




I certainly would agree with Melissa that 21st Century Learners take technology for granted. But I noticed a number of things about the video that weren't mentioned in any of the commentary nor in the video itself, things that made me pause and reflect more widely.

1. The video contrasts the iPad to a magazine, implying that print media was what the child would find boring. But it is not simply print media that the child is not going to be able to make do something--it's TV as well. Touching a TV screen is not going to make anything happen.

2. The way the child was touching the magazine pages was exactly the way I remember my daughter first encountering magazine pages twenty-ish years ago. My daughter didn't have any expectation that something would happen, because at that age she didn't have any electronic games (those came later). Part of what very young children do is explore same-different, as part of figuring out how the world works. Some kids--probably most--will decide like the cutie in the video that the fun of having something happen when you touch a screen is more enjoyable than what happens when you turn the pages of a magazine (interesting, too, that these were the pages of an adult magazine, not something like Babybug, which might have made more sense to the child). But there will also be children, like my daughter, who prefer what happens in the pages of magazines, because they can slow down and study them and move back and forth simply, and not have a wrong button to print.

3. The biggest thing about these kids is that they will take technology for granted. Right now, we don't. We've fetishized it. We think it's amazing that kids know how to work these things. It's not. They're doing what human beings have done for thousands of years--adapted. We, as creators of art for these kids, need to adapt right along with them, and that's what so many of us are doing--and that's great and as it should be. 

4. What's not so great is our middle-class lack of concern for the digital divide we are digging so deep. It's lovely for children of privilege and the middle class to be able to leave print media behind for the wonders of digitalia, but what will happen to those who can't afford it? As it is, early childhood educators are concerned about children whose preliteracy skills aren't where they should be in order for these children to enter school at age 5, ready to read and write. Now we've added not only exposure to books, but exposure to the digital world, and the price of digital is much, much higher than the price of books, that it seems to me we are digging ourselves into a Grand Canyon of difference, only this canyon ain't so grand.

What are your thoughts about kids and technology?

Thanks to Mrs. McCuin's/Ms. Johnson's (no relation) first grade class for being terrific listeners and discussers of picture books. Today was my last time with them this year. We read Margot Zemach's The Little Red Hen and talked about the dropped story stitch and several of them shared what their enrichment group has done to pick up that stitch in a play they were doing based on this story. We also read Leo Lionni's Fish is Fish and The Extraordinary Egg, because they are going to be starting an author unit on Leo Lionni.

So many people have mentioned Where the Wild Things Are or In the Night Kitchen, but for me, the first image conjured by Maurice Sendak's name is Little Bear. The book was a Christmas gift, probably when I was six, because although I was ready to read much, much earlier, the teacher my mother asked about whether she should teach me to read told her not to, because they would do it the right way when I was old enough for school (ah, the educational philosophy of the early '60s!) But by the time this Christmas rolled around, I knew how to read, thanks to dear Mrs. Corliss.

The cover of this book was both promise and affirmation--"I Can Read." I don't remember what other presents I got that year, but I do remember settling down with this book, which was MINE. For me. To read. By myself. To myself. And that is what I did, I remember sounding out the some of the words and checking them against the picture to make sure I got them right.

Most of all, though, I remember reaching the end, when Little Bear comes back into the house one more time, decked out in his hat, his coat, his mittens, and his boots (if I remember correctly), and tells his mother that he is still cold. She takes everything off and sends him outdoors. Because bears always wear their warm fur coats. As Little Bear headed back outdoors, the look of pure satisfaction on his face made the joke even funnier. 

I still remember the feeling as that joke sank in. Not only had I read the story, but that is when I found out--books could be funny. That was the moment I wanted to find more books like that. Because although I liked many other kinds of books, from the Littlest Ballerina to The Tale of Two Bad Mice, reading something funny for the first time was an amazing experience. It wouldn't have been the same without Maurice Sendak's illustrations, either. Little Bear is so expressive, from his eager expression, to the drooping sleeves on his coat when he is still cold. (Of course, now I realize that what he wanted was not warm clothes, but his mother's attention.) And his mother is so understanding and patient, both in gesture and expression. It's not a far stretch from these illustrations to Where the Wild Things Are.

So, thank you, Mr. Sendak, for turning bringing the gift of laughter to my reading. I know the words were Mrs. Minarik's, but they wouldn't be the same without your pictures.

Jane Yolen's parting words to the New England SCBWI Conference still resonate:

I continue to be thankful for last weekend at the alma mater. It was a special place 30+ years ago, one that continues to influence my life. I wish every child who goes to college could have the same sort of experience, finding a community and lasting friendships and expanding horizons.

I am so,so grateful to have lived long enough not to be thrown by some unpleasantnesses that came my way yesterday. It is lovely to have both experience and collegial support.

I am also very, very grateful for the new stack of books I brought home from the library yesterday, both picture books and YA novels.It's going to be a good weekend, even if there is a packet deadline next week.

And now, I need to make that packet deadline a bit less intimidating.