[HN Gopher] Unpublished children's notebooks reveal poignant vie...
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       Unpublished children's notebooks reveal poignant view of history
        
       Author : pepys
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2020-04-24 04:37 UTC (18 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.collectorsweekly.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.collectorsweekly.com)
        
       | djaque wrote:
       | I can't believe that the design of composition notebooks is
       | practically unchanged since the 1930's. Like I had that exact one
       | just a few years ago. I guess "if it aint broke then don't fix
       | it", but I thought somebody would have tried to change it at some
       | point.
        
       | anateus wrote:
       | Related: Onfim is a 13th century Novgorodian kid whose writing
       | exercises and drawings survived:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onfim
       | 
       | I love these windows into the past. Student exercises also help
       | preserve a lot of cuneiform writings as semi-standardized
       | exercise texts can then be found in fragments all over
       | Mesopotamia. Here's an example of such a thing from Sumeria
       | around 4000 years ago, involving a kid being made to go to
       | school, being late, being punished, and admonished to study
       | diligently: http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/408
        
         | codezero wrote:
         | This is absolutely fascinating. It's right up my alley and I
         | can't believe I haven't heard of Onfim before!
         | 
         | Birch bark is so darn useful, I didn't even realize it was also
         | used as a writing surface, which makes all kinds of sense.
         | 
         | Thanks for sharing this.
        
       | qzw wrote:
       | I know that good penmanship is no longer necessary, and my own
       | handwriting is rather inelegant due to reluctance to practice
       | when I was a child, but I can't help but feel a little sad that
       | beautiful handwriting is rarely seen anymore.
        
       | seph-reed wrote:
       | > A passage in this book by a second grader in Buenos Aires,
       | Argentina, reads: "Mr. Brown, owner of the building, gave us a
       | wonderful present. Eighty sprouts of trees. Our teachers explain
       | to us how we must plant them. Let's get to work! In a few years
       | we will walk in the shadow of beautiful paradises. But--I say to
       | my mother--when these trees are grown, I will not be in school
       | anymore. That is indeed true--said my mother--but it is also nice
       | to sow things so that others can enjoy them."
       | 
       | I don't know if children still believe in creating paradises.
       | Maybe things were just as bad then and all children imagine such
       | things. Maybe this child is merely sheltered. But so confidently
       | looking forward to the future like this; it breaks my heart a
       | little bit.
        
         | saagarjha wrote:
         | What paradise is really depends on your point of view, doesn't
         | it?
        
       | dkmn wrote:
       | Thank you! A very welcome thread. It's been very interesting to
       | watch children during this current period of restriction... to
       | see both their internal robustness (in some ways improved, I
       | think, by the lack of constant ephemeral stimulation) and also
       | how they respond to the cultural memes and currents.
       | 
       | E.g. as the author notes: "I think the most important thing that
       | emerges is the influence that adults try to have on children.
       | Even nowadays, in a subtler way, adults try to mold children and
       | make them adapt to the society they live in."
        
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       (page generated 2020-04-24 23:00 UTC)