Sure am glad that we didn't just cut $9 billion in funding towards PBS and other public broadcasting institutions that aired Reading Rainbow.
pitpatagain 2 hours ago [-]
Just for full accuracy: $9b is the total in the claw back bill. About $1.1b of that is CPB (PBS+NPR).
lenerdenator 12 seconds ago [-]
So what you're saying is, Trump or Elon could, in theory, write a check and fund it for the next fiscal year?
whycome 2 hours ago [-]
$9B?!
Path to everything being private. Don't they want to also break up NOAA and National Weather to make them basically just data services? Private companies would then be the ones to publish it. Want to know the weather? Subscribe.
lenerdenator 2 minutes ago [-]
Didn't you hear? Sesame Street is old hat. The new way to have kids learn stuff is with Little Beasts, a Mr. Beast YouTube series brought to you by Prime Energy and Feastibles.
Like I'm joking but that's the idea.
nimbius 2 hours ago [-]
These services are irreplaceable. once they are gone, they are gone.
as for NOAA, China could decide to undermine the profiteering of weather in the US (as it did with AI using DeepSeek) by simply expanding the Fengyun satellite constellation to cover the globe (as it did with beidou) thereby providing weather forecasts for North America as well via the web, social media, and mobile app free of charge as a form of Kissinger style "soft power."
roywiggins 1 hours ago [-]
satellites are one thing, but they can hardly replace American radiosondes (well, without getting them shot out of the sky anyway)
camblomquist 2 hours ago [-]
They aren't breaking up NOAA just for the sake of privatization, reliable weather reporting also makes it harder to ignore Climate Change.
From Project 2025 "[NOAA offices] form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity."
falcor84 1 hours ago [-]
> climate change alarm industry
I would actually like to buy a climate change alarm clock
evilkorn 1 hours ago [-]
10 minutes till midnight. Put it right next to your nuclear clock
malfist 1 hours ago [-]
> is harmful to future U.S. prosperity
So is sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the coming disaster. Next quarter thinking should not be the government policy.
andsoitis 1 hours ago [-]
Don’t look up!
ninetyninenine 1 hours ago [-]
The obvious thing to cut is the goddamn military. I’m not even talking about cutting things off to make the military weaker in a world that largely doesn’t need a powerful military. I’m talking about actual insane over spending.
But even Elon couldn’t do that. I don’t know if any president can. Something is deeply wrong here.
shigawire 25 minutes ago [-]
>Even Elon
I think that is the wrong framing. I'd be more surprised if someone with no real government experience has much success with that venture.
I'd rather have someone with years and years of experience with DoD budgets and the expertise to prioritize the right cuts.
watwut 20 minutes ago [-]
Of course a guy with zero knowledge of how things work, but a lot of confidence and ideaologically fueeled ressentment could not cut spending.
Then again, goal was to destroy and harm and that was achieved.
deadbabe 25 minutes ago [-]
I will miss PBS SpaceTime on YouTube :(
echelon 2 hours ago [-]
That's just the PBS stuff everyone knows about.
Back in the 90's and 00's, PBS had a show called "Irasshai" [1] aimed at high school students. It was a complete two year Japanese language education class filmed in conjunction with Georgia Tech.
They produced 140 30-minute lessons and produced two 500 page text books and teacher lesson plans. Study materials, homework, tests - everything.
It typically aired at 4 AM, so they asked you to set your VCR to record. If you couldn't do that, they could mail you the entire VHS boxed set of episodes.
But that's not the cool and powerful part. They actually let you register for classes and conference call in with an actual teacher. Twice to three times a week with class sizes of 4-6 students. Everyone took turns reading, answering questions, practicing dialogue. All year long.
There were tests and grades, and regular 1-1 proctored verbal exams. It was incredible.
The entire program was offered for free.
It was one of the coolest ways to learn Japanese and it was incredibly effective. This was such an amazing program for high schools that typically only offered Spanish lessons.
What is the case for funding this via a public television station instead of via schools? We already have infrastructure and a wider reach for education in schools? Wouldn't the money have been better served creating a Japanese language program in Georgia high schools?
syndeo 1 hours ago [-]
Wow. I would've absolutely done that had I known about it. (I was in high school in the very late 2000s/early 2010s, so perhaps I was already too late, but yeah, wow.)
Thanks for that link though, a commenter says the vids are still there. (I'm too busy learning Chinese at this point though, I'm afraid!)
WalterBright 2 hours ago [-]
Thank you for the link. The videos are there on the web site, not gone.
mulmen 6 minutes ago [-]
[delayed]
kleiba 8 hours ago [-]
The Christian library one town over from where we live does a "reading summer" event every year for the school holidays: kids who borrow books, read them, and write a small book report (2-3 sentences) for them enter a lottery and can win a small prize at the end of the holidays. And I believe every participants gets a certificate also.
You'd think that this would not appeal to anyone, but they actually have a great turnout every year. Quite amazing actually.
kyleblarson 2 hours ago [-]
Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! program in the 80's where I would get a free personal pan pizza for each book read was a huge motivator.
whycome 2 hours ago [-]
the obesity-literacy pendulum
Taylor_OD 2 hours ago [-]
The Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza has about 600 calories in it. Maybe slightly indulgent, but that is a very reasonable reward and trade off for getting kids to read more.
medfield 1 hours ago [-]
People troll too much with their low effort comments. The thing was tiny, but it was a cool reward as a kid. I may be mistaekn but there was a limit too, it was either one per week or once a month.
4d4m 46 minutes ago [-]
+1 this was a really neat carrot. In retrospect I am thankful for these carrots as they boost curiosity and self-learning, without much harm. People are going to eat out anyhow, what's the harm in marketing that also supports good behavior?
jvm___ 5 hours ago [-]
Our local library had a summer reading program. You needed to talk about the book to a librarian, so we were waiting in line. The kid giving the book report was under 3 so it wasn't much of a book report, she asked the usual questions including "what was your favorite part of the book?"
The book the kid had read was Dinosailors which is about some dinosaurs who go on a sailing trip. The memorable part of the book is the page with no words that's just the dinosaurs throwing up because they all got seasick.
So, the non-verbal child happily reenacted their favorite part of the book.
passivegains 44 minutes ago [-]
There's something beautiful about the kid using performance as language. They've hit upon the greater truth that reading and speech are important because text and the spoken word are powerful mediums, but what truly matters is what they allow us to express to each other.
Though I have worked with children enough to sympathize with the not-beautiful part of this story too. (also that book sounds rad as hell.)
xtiansimon 5 hours ago [-]
As a yuth in the East Bay my Alameda Co. library had a summer reading program with a treasure map. For each book you read, you got a stamp on the map. Then at the end there was a forgettable prize, though, after 45 years I’ve not forgotten the journey.
cadr 3 hours ago [-]
I miss our east bay library. Not saying other places aren’t good, but that’s where we were when our kids were little and the staff was just so amazing.
RheingoldRiver 3 hours ago [-]
> You'd think that this would not appeal to anyone,
Why would this not appeal to anyone? Summer reading games are super popular and kids love getting small prizes
dessimus 1 hours ago [-]
My local library still does Summer reading programs for both adults and kids. My teacher spouse does the adult one since she has a lot of free time in the Summer. She gets at least one gift basket each Summer that includes a $25 gift card to a local restaurant, as I'm pretty sure its just her and maybe 2 other adults doing it.
BolexNOLA 3 hours ago [-]
Idk read a book and do homework to get a chance to win a small thing during your summer break? That would’ve been a hard sell to me as a kid. I’m glad to hear that my skepticism about such a program is wrong though!
2 hours ago [-]
bigmadshoe 3 hours ago [-]
Growing up in Scotland my friends and I all partook in a similar program
soco 6 hours ago [-]
Primary school kids in Switzerland used to (and maybe they still do) run class-wide "competitions" on the points earned on a similar reading challenge - Antolin if I remember correctly and my kid was quite in for it.
gsck 3 hours ago [-]
We had something like this in our school called Accelerated Reader. Read books answer a quiz on it get points, best class/student got rewarded.
Was really easy to game though. Our school library had a selection of books for what I can only assume were for special needs kids, really really simple books very few words with even fewer pages. These books rewarded an appropriate amount of points however so you got less, but you could easily bang out 20 of those books in one class and get a lot more points than you'd be rewarded for reading a real book.
A few of us would just go over grab a bunch of those books and read through them in like 2 minutes and complete the quiz.
They ended up not letting those books get used for AR
44520297 1 hours ago [-]
My friend group got busted for gaming AR and we were banned from it. The interface allowed us to sort the books by points, so we took the top 10 books, split them up among us, summarized them, took the tests, and gave each other the answers. The jig was up when they printed a leaderboard and we were all way ahead with an absurd number of points. They took them all away and we weren’t allowed to participate anymore.
hombre_fatal 2 hours ago [-]
We had Accelerated Reader in my public school in Texas in the early 2000s.
It was a pretty cool system.
The lottery system described upstream is terrible.
But with Accelerated Reader you would accumulate points that you could spend on things like the Scholastic Book Fair (buy books), slices of pizza for lunch, and various toy gadgets. Sometimes a teacher would sell some gimmick like a get out of homework ticket.
Of course, you'd have to read a good number of books to receive any of these prizes. But you were always working towards something unlike a lottery system which isn't motivating at all.
z2 3 hours ago [-]
As yes, my school in the US did that (sporadically) and awarded medals based on tiers. I remember thinking the silver one looked the nicer, and so was careful not to read too much over the summer.
kleiba 4 hours ago [-]
Cool. Although my gut reaction would be that this mostly incentives the kids who already enjoy reading to read more, while the ones who are not great at reading know that they don't have a chance, so perhaps are discouraged from reading even more?!
With that said, I miss the trend of reading being so heavily emphasized in youth culture. Dolly Parton, free Pizza Hut, the accelerated reader program. I'm really grateful I grew up in the 90s.
TimPC 3 hours ago [-]
Wishbone skewed slightly older. Reading the classics vs reading fairly basic books was definitely for a bit older audience.
brendoelfrendo 11 hours ago [-]
Wishbone was a good show, but I think it occupies a different niche. Wishbone was about adapting the classics, and each episode was more of a production vs Reading Rainbow, which was formatted more to introduce kids to contemporary age-appropriate reading by focusing on picture books and excursions to thematically connected places.
The only downside is that Wishbone holds up better to a modern rewatch in comparison, as opposed to how RR is very much of its time. But that's ok, too; someone needs to inspire kids to be adventurous with their reading so that they can go out and find the next classics.
kochb 2 hours ago [-]
LeVar Burton hosted a podcast marketed for adults where he read short stories. Though it ended last year, there are almost 200 episodes in the archive.
He’s still been at work encouraging lifelong reading all these years later.
Norway has gamified summer reading https://sommerles.no/svar
It's quite popular in the first half of elementary school.
You get points for registering read books (even if your parent read it for your, or audio books) and every week all the libraries put up a poster with this week's "code word" which you get points for typing into your profile, and whenever you level up ten levels you get a little prize you can pick up from the library (like a tiny toy, they had shark teeth one year)
parpfish 2 hours ago [-]
when i was a kid, reading was gamified by pizza hut through the 'book it' program.
apwell23 3 hours ago [-]
> get points for registering read books
> little prize you can pick up from the library
I am not convinced that this is really motivating to kids. Don't they have tons' of toys at home an in the library to play with already. Why would they care about tiny shark teeth.
Also i find the whole concept of 'read to get prize' cynical, cheap and manipulative. Don't want to manipulate my own child with these cheap tricks.
darthcircuit 2 hours ago [-]
Don’t underestimate the power of junk prizes. It’s how McDonald’s has gotten away with selling overpriced kids meals for decades.
My kids love the novelty of garbage prize toys and while I think they are stupid, my kids get weirdly motivated by the promise of a trip to the dollar store.
clintonb 2 hours ago [-]
Do you have children? You tell them something is animal-related and they tend to get really excited. Even more so for dinosaurs. My five year old has no concept of money, but he does have a concept of “new thing I can play with”.
When I was a kid we had Book It. I got a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut for every 10(?) books I read. I read a lot of books! I also learned a lot along the way, and continued the habit of reading for fun through college.
whycome 2 hours ago [-]
manipulation or motivation? I suppose it's blurry.
But, I think the point is that once you get the kids into the habit (or help them build the skill) they'll maintain it later on. Even encouraging reading together has societal value.
So, maybe tiny shark teeth are good motivation - i have no idea. I'm not great at gauging what motivates kids. I still don't understand minecraft.
Summer reading programs are a band-aid on the problem that children shouldn’t have such a long summer break now that air conditioning is common. Spread the breaks out throughout the year if you want to maintain the same number of days off. All evidence shows the summer break is bad for children’s academic achievement (especially poor children), but it is viewed as a perk for the teachers so the teacher’s unions fight against questioning it.
lurkshark 2 hours ago [-]
Let’s say summer break is basically 3 months. I as a parent need to figure out childcare for that 3 month period at the beginning of summer. This is a much more time consuming endeavor than most would expect (or at least more than I expected). If you distribute those months throughout the year I need to repeat this process 3 different times, adding a bunch of overhead that could be spent on activities more beneficial to my family and kids.
Edit: Adding that I realize the summer slowdown absolutely exists and has a disproportionate effect on those that don’t need another wrench thrown in their life. But just wanted to add a perspective that isn’t “teacher union boogeyman”.
joshbetz 2 hours ago [-]
It is the only vacation most teachers get, so of course they fight against shortening it
kjkjadksj 29 minutes ago [-]
I would always get a summer writing slump. Write nothing at all from june to august then I couldn’t read my own handwriting. My poor teachers.
aspenmayer 15 hours ago [-]
That was a well done show for kids. LeVar Burton can read a book better than me, and I am not ashamed to admit it. He made learning accessible, fun, and cool.
twoodfin 14 hours ago [-]
He also has that rare Fred Rogers-esque gift of talking in a way children understand without talking down to them.
Not unheard of in today’s tap-obsessed world of YouTube Kids & streaming apps, but much harder to find.
chang1 5 hours ago [-]
As a child in the late 80s/early 90s, I remember watching Star Trek TNG as new episodes were coming out, and also watching Reading Rainbow (I loved both shows).
I've got some sort of weak facial blindness, so I did not connect that Burton and La Forge were the same person.
As a child learning that two of your favorite people were in fact the same person was pretty mind blowing for me.
dotancohen 8 hours ago [-]
Adults, too. I might not know what an inverse-tachyon pulse is, but thanks to his convincing demeanor I understand that it could cause a localized spatial distortion.
aspenmayer 14 hours ago [-]
He’s a compelling speaker and onscreen talent, I agree. He’s using his superpowers for good, whatever they are. Being able to connect through a screen wasn’t normalized back then. Educational content needed that personal touch. I think it makes all the difference.
jimbob45 13 hours ago [-]
I was bored to tears and I read more than the average kid. I liked the aesthetic though and I wanted to like it because it seemed wholesome. I’ve always suspected RR is one of those shows that everyone knows they should like so they all talk it up as if they did like it. Kinda like Rust.
plemer 13 hours ago [-]
Or maybe many did genuinely enjoy RR but you just weren’t the target audience? If it was created to combat the summer reading slump, it likely wasn’t targeting already avid readers.
FWIW, though, my experience was similar to yours: I read a ton and loved the feel of the show, but the actual content was a little slow.
aspenmayer 13 hours ago [-]
I agree that it’s the feel of the show. I grew up with 3 free to air channels, and one of them was a PBS station. The content was better than the competition or the VHS tape collection, or replaying one of the video games.
bagels 12 hours ago [-]
I always immediately turned it off when I was a kid. I appreciate its purpose now, but loathed it when I was in the target audience.
aspenmayer 12 hours ago [-]
I genuinely liked it even though I could read fine. It was an excuse to use the tv when I might not have a good reason to use it instead of someone else otherwise and I enjoyed the content well enough even if I was a couple years older than the intended audience. The public broadcasting shows of that era were weirdly good imo, with Mr Rogers and Shirley Lewis doing puppets, but wholesome too.
Ghost Writer was ahead of its time and deserves a post of its own.
> The series revolves around a multiethnic group of friends from Brooklyn who solve neighborhood crimes and mysteries as a team of youth detectives with the help of a ghost named Ghostwriter. Ghostwriter can communicate with children only by manipulating whatever text and letters he can find and using them to form words and sentences.
> Ghostwriter producer and writer Kermit Frazier revealed in a 2010 interview that Ghostwriter was a runaway slave during the American Civil War. He taught other slaves how to read and write and was killed by slave catchers and their dogs. His spirit was kept in the book that Jamal discovers and opens in the pilot episode, freeing the ghost.
Wishbone has costumes and a dog for your dramatic re-enactments of books with a dog actor in the lead role. This is crazy town, and I’m here for it.
The entire PBS slate of shows was elite. Very little did I know at the time how initiative-driven it was (a great thing). To me where in the world was Carmen Sandiego was a fun trivia game. To the creators, they were trying to address the issue of americans not knowing where the country was on a map.
tallanvor 6 hours ago [-]
"To the creators, they were trying to address the issue of americans not knowing where the country was on a map."
This is a very glib take. The origin of the series was a 1985 educational computer game from Broderbund. The target age group wasn't expected to know all this information, which is why the game shipped with an almanac.
infecto 4 hours ago [-]
Not sure if it was on purpose but your take is the glib one.
“The show was created partially in response to the results of a National Geographic survey indicating little knowledge of geography among some of the American populace, with one in four being unable to locate the Soviet Union or the Pacific Ocean.”
Now of course the tv show is an offspring from the video game but it’s well documented that the specific format was to combat geography. So it’s a fine statement to state that is the purpose of the show creators as that was the mission from PBS at the time.
thaumasiotes 8 hours ago [-]
> To me where in the world was Carmen Sandiego was a fun trivia game. To the creators, they were trying to address the issue of americans not knowing where the country was on a map.
Was there a show? To me Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego was a reoccurring segment on a show called Square One. I liked it, but it didn't feel like it was the source of Carmen Sandiego mythology; it felt more like a minor epiphenomenon.
There was also a computer game, which I didn't play much of because it was a lot of work. It felt a lot more fully developed than the TV segments, though.
pimlottc 3 hours ago [-]
Yes, there was half-hour game show for kids that aired on PBS in the early 90s. For anyone who's ever seen it, chances are the theme song is permanently burned into their brain: Do it, Rockapella! [1]
The game came first, and the TV shows were spun off from it, which is probably why the game feels more fully developed. It grew into a whole media franchise -- there were Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? game shows on PBS, as well as a Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? Saturday morning cartoon, and more recently, an animated series on Netflix. I don't remember there being Carmen Sandiego segments on Square One but I also don't remember Square One all that well in the first place.
fracus 11 hours ago [-]
I honestly just loved the theme song and the good vibes, but yeah, I didn't really watch it watch it.
burnt-resistor 11 hours ago [-]
Whatever works, I guess. It made a difference, although it was corny somewhere between `Punky Brewster` and `Captain Planet`. Vintage `Sesame Street` is legit cool.
monkeyelite 12 hours ago [-]
> LeVar Burton can read a book better than me, and I am not ashamed to admit it.
This is a weird comment. He’s a professional actor. I hope he does
aspenmayer 11 hours ago [-]
He makes the hard thing look easy. This wasn’t a backhanded compliment but a genuine one. He isn’t acting per se, but he does voice act the stories. It was audiobooks and ASMR sorta before those things were cool. He does a fantastic job with the words on the page and also goes on-site to film IRL things from the books. It’s a simple premise and it works. It doesn’t have to be surprising to be enjoyable and engaging.
pfannkuchen 11 hours ago [-]
Why are you looking for a hyper stimulus? Man didn’t evolve in an environment where stories were told by people who’d won a massive intertribe tournament of story telling ability. Stories were told by family.
If child requires hyper stimulus to be engaged in this area, suspect other hyper stimulus present.
eclecticfrank 9 hours ago [-]
> Man didn’t evolve in an environment where stories were told by people who’d won a massive intertribe tournament of story telling ability. Stories were told by family.
The stories we grew up to were indeed those which won "a massive intertribe tournament of story telling ability". Only interesting stories got retold. Stories travelled further when made into songs. They became artworks when tranformed into plays. They became myths and legends in the luggage of those travelling the planet. And the art of telling stories also became a way of making a living much before our contemporary society produced the first pop star.
aspenmayer 11 hours ago [-]
> Why are you looking for a hyper stimulus? Man didn’t evolve in an environment where stories were told by people who’d won a massive intertribe tournament of story telling ability. Stories were told by family.
> If child requires hyper stimulus to be engaged in this area, suspect other hyper stimulus present.
Reading Rainbow is the opposite of a hyperstimulus compared to most tv programs, let alone “educational” tv programming.
I wasn’t seeking a hyperstimulus. You don’t even know me. I could read and write before kindergarten, which was my first schooling outside the home.
pfannkuchen 11 hours ago [-]
> compared to most tv programs
Modern media is so replete with hyper stimuli that it is often hard to see where the line is between what is evolutionarily congruent and what is greater.
I don’t see how knowing you is relevant. This is my position on what most people do. Either you have a different viewpoint on this than the mainstream and yet arrived at the very same conclusions, or I essentially am familiar with your viewpoint in this area. What have I gotten wrong?
thaumasiotes 8 hours ago [-]
I would expect being a professional storyteller to translate a lot better to reading aloud than being a professional actor, really.
ChrisArchitect 14 hours ago [-]
Reminds of another 1980s reading incentive thing, tho during the schoolyear not summer: Pizza Hut's Book It!
We did Book It! for a couple of years, but Accelerated Reader for most of the others. One of my favorite childhood memories as a kid was having to go to the local junior high, because the elementary school didn't have the test for the books I was reading.
It also made me want to read Anna Karenina, because that was listed as the book with the highest points awarded. It only took me 30 years to get around to finishing it.
aspenmayer 14 hours ago [-]
Read books, get free pizza you want, not the pizza they serve at school. Whoever invented this is a genius. I still regret losing the holographic Book It! pin I had, but I can probably find another one if I look.
RandallBrown 13 hours ago [-]
It was sort of Ronald Reagan that invented it.
LongjumpingCat 10 hours ago [-]
This brought back some memories. It’s kind of amazing how shows like this made reading feel fun instead of something you had to do. Just stories, imagination and a bit of magic, sometimes that’s all it takes to get a kid hooked on books.
WalterBright 2 hours ago [-]
My mom read books during the day when my dad was at work. She'd tell my dad how hard she worked all day :-)
I'd look over her shoulder and wonder how she made any sense out of the page full of text, as there were no pictures. I was fascinated by that, and was well motivated to learn to read.
I was not allowed to watch TV beyond Daktari and Saturday morning cartoons. I hated that restriction, but in hindsight my parents made the right call. My dad would watch the news, but it was just gibberish to me.
Later, I was not allowed to watch Green Acres. My parents said it was "rubbish". I did not see an episode of it till I went to college, and eagerly watched to see what I had been missing. I lasted 10 minutes - it was indeed rubbish.
ljf 30 minutes ago [-]
I have a strong feeling this account is a bot.
duxup 3 hours ago [-]
PBS is a national treasure.
mock-possum 5 hours ago [-]
I’m sure I’m not the only one who fondly remembers their local public library’s “summer reading program” - read books, win prizes!
ajuc 12 hours ago [-]
I wonder how many public libraries are there in US.
In Poland every gmina (which is like a collection of a few villages - around 10k people and 10x10 km) have a public library. It's how I learned to love reading books - there was no internet yet, TV had like 3 channels, and I was on vacations bored to hell. So I went to the library and started borrowing random books. I didn't had to drive anywhere or ask my parents - it was just a short walk.
I especially love the small countryside libraries where you don't need to ask the librarian for a book you want - you walk among the shelves and look for the books yourself. Back in 80s/90s most books in such libraries were hand-covered with gray packing-paper covers and had the author and title written by the librarian on that. So you didn't even had images on the cover to let you know what the book was about. It was a complete surprise every time. Through 3 summer vacations I went through half the library, even trying some Harlequins or "collected works of Lenin" :) (not a very good read BTW). Mostly I looked for fantasy and sci-fi, but that was like 5 shelves out of 50, so I tried everything eventually. And I learnt to love reading ever since.
RandallBrown 12 hours ago [-]
The US public library system is very big. There are over 17,000 libraries and that doesn't include the almost 100,000 libraries that are in schools.
My city (Seattle, a pretty large US city) has 27 public libraries. I only live a few blocks from the closest one but could fairly easily walk to at least 2 more.
ajuc 12 hours ago [-]
> 17,000 libraries
It doesn't seem like "A lot" for a country the size of US TBH.
Poland has 7541 public libraries. Which is 1 per 41 km^2, but of course big cities have many libraries, so the actual distance is larger in the countryside. But it's a number.
17000 libraries in US is like one per 580 km^2.
And yes every school has one too, there's 35 000 schools. But many of these are very small libraries that mostly carry mandatory lectures for school + some classic books. In my village the school library sucked.
I lived in a village of 500 people and had a library within 5 minute walk.
98codes 46 minutes ago [-]
In the United States (in 2020[1]), 100% of the population lived within 5 miles (8 km) of a local public library, with 99.1% of people living within 1 mile (1.6 km). That seems good enough to me.
73% live within a mile from your source not 99.1%.
Tallain 11 hours ago [-]
Going by land area isn't a great metric, since the US has a great deal of unpopulated or sparsely populated space. Per capita might be better, but not by much. But if you go "per city," the US has around 19,000 incorporated areas. So 17k libraries to 19k incorporated areas (cities, towns, villages, designated census areas, etc.), might be better metric.
dustincoates 6 hours ago [-]
You can have small towns with libraries in the US, too. Flatonia, TX has a population of 1,300 and has a public library.
There are probably even smaller towns, but I know Flatonia has one because I've been there.
aaronbaugher 12 minutes ago [-]
There's a town near me that has a population of 1100 and a nice small library. And there's state-wide interlibrary loan, so small-town libraries can get you anything the bigger ones have.
burnt-resistor 11 hours ago [-]
I guess one needs to consider the US is geographically much larger and most land doesn't actually contain people. Considering the density is wiser, but even still. Libraries per occupied area still isn't a good metric. There is no good metric.
What's more important is the qualitative offerings and impact:
1. Spectrum of a. most common services and collections offered everywhere to b. the most comprehensive of those offered by a specific library.
2. What people can do at them: read, research subjects, borrow things, accomplish tasks, host meetings, etc.
This is very hard to measure and not something a business person running the government "like a business" would understand.
ajuc 11 hours ago [-]
IMO the most important metric is "what percentage of kids can walk to a library without asking anybody".
But nowadays people have internet, so I guess it's not THAT important anymore. The ideal library is just a website that lets you download pirated ebooks for free.
roywiggins 1 hours ago [-]
To build a library close enough to most American kids that they could walk to it would likely be infeasible, because so many people live places that are simply not walkable at all.
kjkjadksj 24 minutes ago [-]
Another commenter said 73% of americans live 1 mile of a library. Thats walkable. You don’t need brewpubcafes and tree lined streets to walk.
burnt-resistor 10 hours ago [-]
You've just reinvented Z-library. ;)
The utility of the brick-and-mortar is that some/(many by state) libraries include services and physical items that can be checked out besides media. Plus, besides free Wi-Fi and meeting rooms, it's a non-consumption location to exist in a physical public space. There aren't many more free spaces in America. And, there are millions of people who can't afford internet, a tablet, a computer, or have a place for books. Millions of books and historical local newspapers don't exist in electronic form!
But no, really, (most of) America is truly unwalkable for almost any activity.
pfannkuchen 11 hours ago [-]
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pfannkuchen 11 hours ago [-]
Is gmena a typo or does Polish seriously have “gm” as a digraph? I have seen a reasonable amount of written Polish but I’ve never noticed “gm” before. That strikes me as really reaching, get a different alphabet, already.
rdlw 2 hours ago [-]
It's not a digraph, it's pronounced /gm/
MandieD 10 hours ago [-]
Even Germany has Gmünd: Schwäbisch Gmünd, Georgensgmünd…
saghm 5 hours ago [-]
English has fairly common words with "gm", just not at the beginning of words. Figma and enigma immediately spring to mind. I'd even argue that people say "Big Mac" roughly the same speed as the above words. Plus, there's even that meme word from a few years ago (like a crude, less punny version of the "updog" joke, if that helps narrow down what I mean)
internet_points 9 hours ago [-]
> get a different alphabet, already
English has entered the chat
ajuc 11 hours ago [-]
"Gmina" is correct. It's the lowest administrative unit in Poland.
There's a few other words with "gm", like "gmerać" (to fiddle with sth), "gmin" (plebs, common people - same root word as gmina I'd imagine), "gmach" (a huge building, usually of some public institution).
It's not a digraph tho, it's just pronounced as "g" and then "m"?
I'm like 99% sure it's a German loanword. Most of city/administration/building language in Polish comes from German - dach (roof), szyba (glass pane), rynek (main market square), ratusz (city hall), burmistrz (city mayor), rynsztok (gutter), etc.
All through middle ages Poland imported lots of germanic settlers and had them build whole new towns from scratch in Poland in exchange for tax breaks. There's a town called "Niemcy" (Germans/Mutes) like 10 km from where I live :), and there's a village called "Dys" nearby.
What's the problem with using latin script for gm by the way?
MandieD 10 hours ago [-]
As someone who speaks German but not Polish, “Gemeinde” was the first thing that came to mind seeing that “gmina” is a collection of rural villages, because that’s what the smallest incorporated settlements here are called (at least in Bavaria). Gemeinde -> Markt -> Stadt
cyberax 12 hours ago [-]
> I wonder how many public libraries are there in US.
A _lot_ of them (nearly 125000 about 250 people per library on average). And you can do inter-library loans, and you can check out DVDs and BluRays.
xrd 14 hours ago [-]
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seizethecheese 13 hours ago [-]
Why post this if you know it'll be downvoted? Seriously not in the spirit of a good message board participant.
fuckdangsasshol 12 hours ago [-]
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heckintime 14 hours ago [-]
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throwing_away 12 hours ago [-]
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esseph 12 hours ago [-]
Sure was buddy
Big Book out to get u
(How the fuck did you know what "propaganda" was before you could even read btw?)
vintermann 11 hours ago [-]
Ask a parent! Kids can be very wary of attempts to "shape" them. Of course they're not going to know the word propaganda, but the instinct to detect manipulation (and react negatively to it) goes deep.
TeMPOraL 11 hours ago [-]
Indeed. Also, small kids are excellent bullshit detectors. They can tell when they're being given non-sequiturs, or explanations are inconsistent, and they (rightfully) see this as problem and are confused when such things come from sources they trust (e.g. parents).
omeid2 11 hours ago [-]
I am always fascinated by this degree of assurance and absolute lack of scepticism.
In what way, do you think, a show can have no room for critical viewing? Does being related to "reading or books" sufficient for such unquestionable and noncritical acceptance? Or was something else about it that makes it so cocksure good?
gonzobonzo 9 hours ago [-]
Watching Mr. Rogers as an adult, I was surprised by how opinionated the show could be. There was an episode where one of the puppets was trying to teach a child puppet to read before they entered school, and it was presented as a extremely harsh and mean way to treat a child. A human actor comes in and starts scolding the puppet that it's not necessary to teach the kids to read before school and that she needs to stop. Later, Mr. Rogers talks with an actual kindergarten teacher, and they discuss how it's completely unnecessary to teach kids to read before they enter kindergarten.
It felt like it was indoctrinating kids into believing that the right way to raise them was the way that Fred Rogers preferred.
There's this strange point of view that once it's decided that something is good and it's being made by good people, it's absurd to look at it critically and anyone who does should be mocked.
esseph 1 hours ago [-]
Okay, I don't think that was it.
I think the one you are talking about is Episode 1462.
In Episode 1462 Lady Elaine is badgering people for not knowing all their letters and numbers etc before showing up for school.
The point is not about knowing them before you show up, the point is about addressing learning anxiety!
The point of that section is to tell children that if they don't know these things before they first show up at school, that it's not the end of the world!
Different kids are going to come from different backgrounds, this segment addresses that so when kids show up to school and don't know these things, that they don't feel stressed and upset that other kids may know something they don't. That is something they can turn a kid off from school and wanting to learn forever.
Were in a place where you learned things like that before you ever went to school? If so, that can cause resentment!
esseph 2 hours ago [-]
You're talking about, I believe, Episode 1463 - Mr Rogers goes to school.
That is a Waldorf perspective, though presumably not exclusive to them. I was sent to a Waldorf kindergarten, and my mother despised it because they repeatedly insulted her for having taught me to read. They felt this was unhealthy.
Independent of Waldorf, kindergarten teachers - like most teachers - don't like it when their students already know the material they're supposed to be teaching.
gonzobonzo 8 hours ago [-]
> Independent of Waldorf, kindergarten teachers - like most teachers - don't like it when their students already know the material they're supposed to be teaching.
Yes, "don't do it that way, you're not suppose to know that yet" is depressingly common. Also unfair, since it usually only applies to certain kids - we don't tell artistic kids that they shouldn't paint so well, because kids aren't supposed to be at that level yet, nor do we tell athletic kids this. But it's extremely common in subjects like math.
One of the things that's frustrating is the one size fits all mentality when it comes to education. Even if some kids don't get a lot out of home education, some really enjoy it, and it can be a great bonding experience for many parents and children. It feels irresponsible to dismiss it all together.
thaumasiotes 3 hours ago [-]
> we don't tell artistic kids that they shouldn't paint so well, because kids aren't supposed to be at that level yet, nor do we tell athletic kids this. But it's extremely common in subjects like math.
It's even more common as applied to holding a job, which is out-and-out illegal for children in most cases.
anniedethomasis 10 hours ago [-]
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pessimizer 9 hours ago [-]
Reading is a communist plot, but you guys are foiling it with critical theory and New Left Marxist analysis directed at children's books, with the aim of trying to detect hidden propaganda from the System meant to secretly train students to conform to the government, academia, mass media, and the medical industry... literally the consciousness-raising New Left.
The woke right is no joke. You guys and the rainbow-haired gender people speak in the same distorted stepped-on 8th-generation Freudian dream logic. There's no limit to the nonsense that one can be led into when one assumes that all of the wealthiest people on the planet who share the least (and own the media, publishers, etc.) are all committed collectivist Soviet agents bussed in from 1915, rather than as likely as not old German firms inherited by the children of the literal ex-Nazis that ran them until the 80s.
palmfacehn 5 hours ago [-]
"...when one assumes that all of the wealthiest people on the planet who share the least (and own the media, publishers, etc.) are all committed collectivist..."
I will not engage with "woke right" or all of your points, much of which appears to be sarcasm.
However, I will note that historically collectivist movements such as the early Progressives around the dawn of the 20th century, were championed by wealthy elites. Looking back it is easy to see how the centralization of authority in this era benefited the elite classes disproportionately.
So, yes, I agree that much of the messaging for collectivist movements does focus on the perceived victim classes. However, that is only the surface level marketing. When examining the historical record, critics generally cite the outcomes rather than the slogans.
Hope this helps to add perspective to this contentious issue.
throwing_away 12 hours ago [-]
That was just the vibe.
It was mandatory watching by the state education program. It had product placement and a clear message.
I mean, I feel like it would take more education to not see it as propaganda.
I didn't like The Magic Schoolbus either though. Same reason.
Oh, and Scholastic everything.
pbhjpbhj 9 hours ago [-]
I've only seen Magic School Bus as an adult, but I don't recall any product placement? They seem fun and educational - like Storybots.
Only problem I have with those shows for kids is the lack of real people.
sitzkrieg 12 hours ago [-]
i felt like a lot of my teachers kept it handy in the "fucking hungover" pocket too
tclancy 11 hours ago [-]
Well, good work avoiding that scam. I guess. Does this make you Goofus or Gallanyt?
user4673568345 11 hours ago [-]
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etchalon 14 hours ago [-]
It sure was neat when people aspired to help kids learn instead of being completely focused on them not learning the wrong thing.
monkeyelite 12 hours ago [-]
I think if you back and watch these 90s PBS shows you’ll find they are also very overt in promoting their ideas.
fsckboy 13 hours ago [-]
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monkeyelite 12 hours ago [-]
> while children have been fed increasing amounts of what you think they should know by people you agree with, their actually reading scores have been declining and declining and declining
Why are you having a disguised political debate? Please state claims clearly.
fsckboy 2 minutes ago [-]
>Please state claims clearly.
i don't know what you mean, you didn't come out and say it
12 hours ago [-]
Larrikin 13 hours ago [-]
Mr. Fuckboy, why are you pretending like the very same government funded network that created shows like Reading Rainbow isn't being gutted by politics. I assume with your user name this is a serious opinion to be taken seriously.
dehrmann 10 hours ago [-]
I'm torn. I see lots of value in reading (for both kids and adults!), but at some point, there also needs to be emphasis on doing.
aspect0545 10 hours ago [-]
How is reading different from doing. This is about encouraging children to read, it’s a very active process. Maybe I‘m missing something?
xandrius 9 hours ago [-]
Just to argue reading vs doing: I know lots of heavy readers who can't absolutely do something new. They only read and read.
On the other hand, doing is a totally different skillset.
I'm not against reading just that it's very unlike doing something in general.
kjkjadksj 21 minutes ago [-]
What does doing even mean here? Cutting the grass? Building a tree house?
resource_waste 7 hours ago [-]
No need to be black and white.
Reading can be active, if I'm taking notes on nonfiction its a somewhat active process.
Reading can be passive, if I'm cruising on a fiction book.
ethan_smith 7 hours ago [-]
Reading is doing when it involves active engagement - kids who read deeply are processing, imagining, questioning, and building mental models they later apply to real-world problems.
JimBlackwood 10 hours ago [-]
How do you propose that should look?
The whole show is to motivate people to want to pick up a book, which to me sounds like an emphasis on doing.
If you’d replace this with posters or shows that just say “READ A BOOK”, it would not be as effective.
pessimizer 9 hours ago [-]
Doing what? Just whatever? As long as they aren't doing any reading?
They should also replace lunch period with a "life" period. I see a lot of kids sitting around eating, getting fat, but kids need experience in real life; eating will get them nowhere.
Like I'm joking but that's the idea.
as for NOAA, China could decide to undermine the profiteering of weather in the US (as it did with AI using DeepSeek) by simply expanding the Fengyun satellite constellation to cover the globe (as it did with beidou) thereby providing weather forecasts for North America as well via the web, social media, and mobile app free of charge as a form of Kissinger style "soft power."
I would actually like to buy a climate change alarm clock
So is sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the coming disaster. Next quarter thinking should not be the government policy.
But even Elon couldn’t do that. I don’t know if any president can. Something is deeply wrong here.
I think that is the wrong framing. I'd be more surprised if someone with no real government experience has much success with that venture.
I'd rather have someone with years and years of experience with DoD budgets and the expertise to prioritize the right cuts.
Then again, goal was to destroy and harm and that was achieved.
Back in the 90's and 00's, PBS had a show called "Irasshai" [1] aimed at high school students. It was a complete two year Japanese language education class filmed in conjunction with Georgia Tech.
They produced 140 30-minute lessons and produced two 500 page text books and teacher lesson plans. Study materials, homework, tests - everything.
It typically aired at 4 AM, so they asked you to set your VCR to record. If you couldn't do that, they could mail you the entire VHS boxed set of episodes.
But that's not the cool and powerful part. They actually let you register for classes and conference call in with an actual teacher. Twice to three times a week with class sizes of 4-6 students. Everyone took turns reading, answering questions, practicing dialogue. All year long.
There were tests and grades, and regular 1-1 proctored verbal exams. It was incredible.
The entire program was offered for free.
It was one of the coolest ways to learn Japanese and it was incredibly effective. This was such an amazing program for high schools that typically only offered Spanish lessons.
And now that's gone.
[1] https://www.gpb.org/irasshai
Thanks for that link though, a commenter says the vids are still there. (I'm too busy learning Chinese at this point though, I'm afraid!)
You'd think that this would not appeal to anyone, but they actually have a great turnout every year. Quite amazing actually.
The book the kid had read was Dinosailors which is about some dinosaurs who go on a sailing trip. The memorable part of the book is the page with no words that's just the dinosaurs throwing up because they all got seasick.
So, the non-verbal child happily reenacted their favorite part of the book.
Though I have worked with children enough to sympathize with the not-beautiful part of this story too. (also that book sounds rad as hell.)
Why would this not appeal to anyone? Summer reading games are super popular and kids love getting small prizes
Was really easy to game though. Our school library had a selection of books for what I can only assume were for special needs kids, really really simple books very few words with even fewer pages. These books rewarded an appropriate amount of points however so you got less, but you could easily bang out 20 of those books in one class and get a lot more points than you'd be rewarded for reading a real book.
A few of us would just go over grab a bunch of those books and read through them in like 2 minutes and complete the quiz.
They ended up not letting those books get used for AR
It was a pretty cool system.
The lottery system described upstream is terrible.
But with Accelerated Reader you would accumulate points that you could spend on things like the Scholastic Book Fair (buy books), slices of pizza for lunch, and various toy gadgets. Sometimes a teacher would sell some gimmick like a get out of homework ticket.
Of course, you'd have to read a good number of books to receive any of these prizes. But you were always working towards something unlike a lottery system which isn't motivating at all.
Looking back on the list of Reading Rainbow books: https://knowtea.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/rea...
I can't say I've read many of them.
With that said, I miss the trend of reading being so heavily emphasized in youth culture. Dolly Parton, free Pizza Hut, the accelerated reader program. I'm really grateful I grew up in the 90s.
The only downside is that Wishbone holds up better to a modern rewatch in comparison, as opposed to how RR is very much of its time. But that's ok, too; someone needs to inspire kids to be adventurous with their reading so that they can go out and find the next classics.
He’s still been at work encouraging lifelong reading all these years later.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/levar-burton-reads/id1...
https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81750412?s=i&trkid=25859316...
> little prize you can pick up from the library
I am not convinced that this is really motivating to kids. Don't they have tons' of toys at home an in the library to play with already. Why would they care about tiny shark teeth.
Also i find the whole concept of 'read to get prize' cynical, cheap and manipulative. Don't want to manipulate my own child with these cheap tricks.
My kids love the novelty of garbage prize toys and while I think they are stupid, my kids get weirdly motivated by the promise of a trip to the dollar store.
When I was a kid we had Book It. I got a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut for every 10(?) books I read. I read a lot of books! I also learned a lot along the way, and continued the habit of reading for fun through college.
But, I think the point is that once you get the kids into the habit (or help them build the skill) they'll maintain it later on. Even encouraging reading together has societal value.
So, maybe tiny shark teeth are good motivation - i have no idea. I'm not great at gauging what motivates kids. I still don't understand minecraft.
[0] https://youtu.be/--RYPHqbD50?si=YvldZg_xt--H3LSn
Edit: Adding that I realize the summer slowdown absolutely exists and has a disproportionate effect on those that don’t need another wrench thrown in their life. But just wanted to add a perspective that isn’t “teacher union boogeyman”.
Not unheard of in today’s tap-obsessed world of YouTube Kids & streaming apps, but much harder to find.
The episode where Reading Rainbow visited the Star Trek TNG set was one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRz_qpgD-0
As a child learning that two of your favorite people were in fact the same person was pretty mind blowing for me.
FWIW, though, my experience was similar to yours: I read a ton and loved the feel of the show, but the actual content was a little slow.
Ghost Writer was ahead of its time and deserves a post of its own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwriter_(1992_TV_series)
> The series revolves around a multiethnic group of friends from Brooklyn who solve neighborhood crimes and mysteries as a team of youth detectives with the help of a ghost named Ghostwriter. Ghostwriter can communicate with children only by manipulating whatever text and letters he can find and using them to form words and sentences.
> Ghostwriter producer and writer Kermit Frazier revealed in a 2010 interview that Ghostwriter was a runaway slave during the American Civil War. He taught other slaves how to read and write and was killed by slave catchers and their dogs. His spirit was kept in the book that Jamal discovers and opens in the pilot episode, freeing the ghost.
Wishbone has costumes and a dog for your dramatic re-enactments of books with a dog actor in the lead role. This is crazy town, and I’m here for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wishbone_(TV_series)
This is a very glib take. The origin of the series was a 1985 educational computer game from Broderbund. The target age group wasn't expected to know all this information, which is why the game shipped with an almanac.
“The show was created partially in response to the results of a National Geographic survey indicating little knowledge of geography among some of the American populace, with one in four being unable to locate the Soviet Union or the Pacific Ocean.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_in_the_World_Is_Carmen...
Now of course the tv show is an offspring from the video game but it’s well documented that the specific format was to combat geography. So it’s a fine statement to state that is the purpose of the show creators as that was the mission from PBS at the time.
Was there a show? To me Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego was a reoccurring segment on a show called Square One. I liked it, but it didn't feel like it was the source of Carmen Sandiego mythology; it felt more like a minor epiphenomenon.
There was also a computer game, which I didn't play much of because it was a lot of work. It felt a lot more fully developed than the TV segments, though.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_in_the_World_Is_Carmen_S...
1: https://youtu.be/9ubKvQe2hQU?si=jHjOKvKuWukQkBUJ&t=1510
This is a weird comment. He’s a professional actor. I hope he does
If child requires hyper stimulus to be engaged in this area, suspect other hyper stimulus present.
The stories we grew up to were indeed those which won "a massive intertribe tournament of story telling ability". Only interesting stories got retold. Stories travelled further when made into songs. They became artworks when tranformed into plays. They became myths and legends in the luggage of those travelling the planet. And the art of telling stories also became a way of making a living much before our contemporary society produced the first pop star.
> If child requires hyper stimulus to be engaged in this area, suspect other hyper stimulus present.
Reading Rainbow is the opposite of a hyperstimulus compared to most tv programs, let alone “educational” tv programming.
I wasn’t seeking a hyperstimulus. You don’t even know me. I could read and write before kindergarten, which was my first schooling outside the home.
Modern media is so replete with hyper stimuli that it is often hard to see where the line is between what is evolutionarily congruent and what is greater.
I don’t see how knowing you is relevant. This is my position on what most people do. Either you have a different viewpoint on this than the mainstream and yet arrived at the very same conclusions, or I essentially am familiar with your viewpoint in this area. What have I gotten wrong?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Hut#Book_It!
It also made me want to read Anna Karenina, because that was listed as the book with the highest points awarded. It only took me 30 years to get around to finishing it.
I'd look over her shoulder and wonder how she made any sense out of the page full of text, as there were no pictures. I was fascinated by that, and was well motivated to learn to read.
I was not allowed to watch TV beyond Daktari and Saturday morning cartoons. I hated that restriction, but in hindsight my parents made the right call. My dad would watch the news, but it was just gibberish to me.
Later, I was not allowed to watch Green Acres. My parents said it was "rubbish". I did not see an episode of it till I went to college, and eagerly watched to see what I had been missing. I lasted 10 minutes - it was indeed rubbish.
In Poland every gmina (which is like a collection of a few villages - around 10k people and 10x10 km) have a public library. It's how I learned to love reading books - there was no internet yet, TV had like 3 channels, and I was on vacations bored to hell. So I went to the library and started borrowing random books. I didn't had to drive anywhere or ask my parents - it was just a short walk.
I especially love the small countryside libraries where you don't need to ask the librarian for a book you want - you walk among the shelves and look for the books yourself. Back in 80s/90s most books in such libraries were hand-covered with gray packing-paper covers and had the author and title written by the librarian on that. So you didn't even had images on the cover to let you know what the book was about. It was a complete surprise every time. Through 3 summer vacations I went through half the library, even trying some Harlequins or "collected works of Lenin" :) (not a very good read BTW). Mostly I looked for fantasy and sci-fi, but that was like 5 shelves out of 50, so I tried everything eventually. And I learnt to love reading ever since.
My city (Seattle, a pretty large US city) has 27 public libraries. I only live a few blocks from the closest one but could fairly easily walk to at least 2 more.
It doesn't seem like "A lot" for a country the size of US TBH.
Poland has 7541 public libraries. Which is 1 per 41 km^2, but of course big cities have many libraries, so the actual distance is larger in the countryside. But it's a number.
17000 libraries in US is like one per 580 km^2.
And yes every school has one too, there's 35 000 schools. But many of these are very small libraries that mostly carry mandatory lectures for school + some classic books. In my village the school library sucked.
I lived in a village of 500 people and had a library within 5 minute walk.
[1] https://www.gc.cuny.edu/center-urban-research/research-proje...
There are probably even smaller towns, but I know Flatonia has one because I've been there.
What's more important is the qualitative offerings and impact:
1. Spectrum of a. most common services and collections offered everywhere to b. the most comprehensive of those offered by a specific library.
2. What people can do at them: read, research subjects, borrow things, accomplish tasks, host meetings, etc.
This is very hard to measure and not something a business person running the government "like a business" would understand.
But nowadays people have internet, so I guess it's not THAT important anymore. The ideal library is just a website that lets you download pirated ebooks for free.
The utility of the brick-and-mortar is that some/(many by state) libraries include services and physical items that can be checked out besides media. Plus, besides free Wi-Fi and meeting rooms, it's a non-consumption location to exist in a physical public space. There aren't many more free spaces in America. And, there are millions of people who can't afford internet, a tablet, a computer, or have a place for books. Millions of books and historical local newspapers don't exist in electronic form!
But no, really, (most of) America is truly unwalkable for almost any activity.
English has entered the chat
There's a few other words with "gm", like "gmerać" (to fiddle with sth), "gmin" (plebs, common people - same root word as gmina I'd imagine), "gmach" (a huge building, usually of some public institution).
It's not a digraph tho, it's just pronounced as "g" and then "m"?
I'm like 99% sure it's a German loanword. Most of city/administration/building language in Polish comes from German - dach (roof), szyba (glass pane), rynek (main market square), ratusz (city hall), burmistrz (city mayor), rynsztok (gutter), etc.
All through middle ages Poland imported lots of germanic settlers and had them build whole new towns from scratch in Poland in exchange for tax breaks. There's a town called "Niemcy" (Germans/Mutes) like 10 km from where I live :), and there's a village called "Dys" nearby.
What's the problem with using latin script for gm by the way?
A _lot_ of them (nearly 125000 about 250 people per library on average). And you can do inter-library loans, and you can check out DVDs and BluRays.
Big Book out to get u
(How the fuck did you know what "propaganda" was before you could even read btw?)
In what way, do you think, a show can have no room for critical viewing? Does being related to "reading or books" sufficient for such unquestionable and noncritical acceptance? Or was something else about it that makes it so cocksure good?
It felt like it was indoctrinating kids into believing that the right way to raise them was the way that Fred Rogers preferred.
There's this strange point of view that once it's decided that something is good and it's being made by good people, it's absurd to look at it critically and anyone who does should be mocked.
I think the one you are talking about is Episode 1462.
In Episode 1462 Lady Elaine is badgering people for not knowing all their letters and numbers etc before showing up for school.
The point is not about knowing them before you show up, the point is about addressing learning anxiety!
The point of that section is to tell children that if they don't know these things before they first show up at school, that it's not the end of the world!
Different kids are going to come from different backgrounds, this segment addresses that so when kids show up to school and don't know these things, that they don't feel stressed and upset that other kids may know something they don't. That is something they can turn a kid off from school and wanting to learn forever.
Were in a place where you learned things like that before you ever went to school? If so, that can cause resentment!
I found it in the internet archive here: https://archive.org/details/ipoy143season10
Edit: The correct episode in question is Ep 1462.
Independent of Waldorf, kindergarten teachers - like most teachers - don't like it when their students already know the material they're supposed to be teaching.
Yes, "don't do it that way, you're not suppose to know that yet" is depressingly common. Also unfair, since it usually only applies to certain kids - we don't tell artistic kids that they shouldn't paint so well, because kids aren't supposed to be at that level yet, nor do we tell athletic kids this. But it's extremely common in subjects like math.
One of the things that's frustrating is the one size fits all mentality when it comes to education. Even if some kids don't get a lot out of home education, some really enjoy it, and it can be a great bonding experience for many parents and children. It feels irresponsible to dismiss it all together.
It's even more common as applied to holding a job, which is out-and-out illegal for children in most cases.
The woke right is no joke. You guys and the rainbow-haired gender people speak in the same distorted stepped-on 8th-generation Freudian dream logic. There's no limit to the nonsense that one can be led into when one assumes that all of the wealthiest people on the planet who share the least (and own the media, publishers, etc.) are all committed collectivist Soviet agents bussed in from 1915, rather than as likely as not old German firms inherited by the children of the literal ex-Nazis that ran them until the 80s.
I will not engage with "woke right" or all of your points, much of which appears to be sarcasm.
However, I will note that historically collectivist movements such as the early Progressives around the dawn of the 20th century, were championed by wealthy elites. Looking back it is easy to see how the centralization of authority in this era benefited the elite classes disproportionately.
So, yes, I agree that much of the messaging for collectivist movements does focus on the perceived victim classes. However, that is only the surface level marketing. When examining the historical record, critics generally cite the outcomes rather than the slogans.
Hope this helps to add perspective to this contentious issue.
It was mandatory watching by the state education program. It had product placement and a clear message.
I mean, I feel like it would take more education to not see it as propaganda.
I didn't like The Magic Schoolbus either though. Same reason.
Oh, and Scholastic everything.
Only problem I have with those shows for kids is the lack of real people.
Why are you having a disguised political debate? Please state claims clearly.
i don't know what you mean, you didn't come out and say it
On the other hand, doing is a totally different skillset.
I'm not against reading just that it's very unlike doing something in general.
Reading can be active, if I'm taking notes on nonfiction its a somewhat active process.
Reading can be passive, if I'm cruising on a fiction book.
The whole show is to motivate people to want to pick up a book, which to me sounds like an emphasis on doing.
If you’d replace this with posters or shows that just say “READ A BOOK”, it would not be as effective.
They should also replace lunch period with a "life" period. I see a lot of kids sitting around eating, getting fat, but kids need experience in real life; eating will get them nowhere.