Just shared this story on FB:
My kids' elementary school library was getting rid of their encyclopedias in about 2009? -- and I being a child of the '70s thought owning encyclopedia set would be so awesome.
My son is a history buff from an early age and was a huge user of Wikipedia. He was on the computer all the time -- but not playing games or getting into social media way too young -- he was reading everything on Wikipedia. And as happens with an 8 year old, he got in trouble for something and had his computer privileges taken away.
He moped and moaned around the house for a day, until I introduced him to our set of encyclopedias. And he started reading them voraciously. Starting with letter A! It was like Wikipedia in book form!!! ... except it was 20 years out of date. He started coming to us with all these FASCINATING facts about like how Bulgaria was emerging from Communist rule! And he said these things as if they were current events. He did not understand why were laughing at him. He got part way through C when his computer privileges were restored, and he never once opened the encyclopedias again.
I think I got rid of them finally in about 2020 -- and I *sigh* just threw them away. No one wants 30 year old reference books.
No comments:
Post a Comment