Just wondering.......

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

My teachers were wonderful about letting me do extracurricular stuff in class. Most all of them were even fine about me setting my own pace in most subjects, and doing math while they did reading, or vice versa. But, I think they were mostly happy just to have one student in class who was always (1) quiet, (2) hard at work, and (3) who tested off the charts.

Sounds familiar. They didn't have special advanced classes when I was a kid. So, since the teachers didn't know what to do with me, they made me teach while they graded papers and such. It was mostly just leading the class in reading their paragraphs aloud, but also assigned to certain classmates to help them catch up. It made me aware of helping others, and kept me out of trouble from being too bored. My favorite subject was naptime.

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

So, I spent a very happy youth on a farm, herding cats, milking cows, and interacting with people who heard voices and had discussions with the toaster.

And who doesn't?

Originally Posted by pshrynk

.... becasue I was a curious little boy...

I was a strange little kid.

Umm, okay. No comment.

Nice tie!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Were any of us not strange little kids? (Er... are any of us not now?)

I sort of vaguely remember getting worksheets (they were called mimeographs, Z-chan),

Actually, those blue sheets were produced by ditto, not mimeography. Mimeo was a seperate process. There was also hecktography.

Old time SF fans got remarkably creative with them, as mimeo was the preferred choice for producing fanzines. I remember one fan ed who produced a mimeographed fanzine, and used heckto to provide an additional color overlay on the cover. (I knew another who claimed he could mimeograph legibly on toilet paper, and I could believe it given the quality of his work.)

Gestetner had a booth at Torcon 2, a World SF Con in the '60's, where fans could use the machines to create publications at the con. The Gestetner reps had little to do - the fans knew as much as they did about running the equipment.

Schools were fond of ditto reproduction, and used it the way photo copiers get used now, but the dittoed pages did not have good shelf life. You didn't want to use it for anything you might want to read next year.

And my first computer was also a C64-- unless you count the VT100 in the basement with the 300 baud modem line to a VAX.

Mine was an AT&T 3B1 Unix workstation (big brother of their Unix-PC line). I didn't get an actual PC till rather later. I did log time on a friend's C64. Nothing wrong with it a faster disk drive interface wouldn't have addressed.
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Dennis

[vivaldirules]

You are all (let's see, DixieGal, Nekokami, pshwynk, Patricia, basschick, Zelda, RickyMaveety, Dennis, bbusybookworm, Elsi - probably more that I've missed from this thread) a bunch of strange, distorted types - all this reading, reading, reading. Didn't you, like, play when you were little kids?

I love it. And in case you're looking for an example on the other end of the spectrum, I'm it. My parents didn't read to me when I was a kid and I only picked it up slowly after seeing my older brother devour books daily for years (how he got attracted to it, I have no idea). I think I learned to read about age 5 or so. But it wasn't until I was about 10 that I read a book for enjoyment without being prodded by a teacher. Unfortunately, it was not a habit I developed further even then and so, forty years later, I still find it hard not to be distracted (various tangential thoughts, what's for dinner, do I smell bacon?) while reading. I own far more books than I'll ever read because although my interest in books is sky high, my ability to plow through them with both pleasure and efficiency is dreadfully poor.

Don't ever not read to your kids daily. Don't ever let your kids not read to your grandkids daily. But you already knew that.

[nekokami]

Right, I remember them being called "ditto" as well, and that there were different colors available (though purple was the most common). This was the process that used a sheet of waxy stuff that would be impressed on a transfer sheet by typing or with a pen/pencil/stylus, then the transfer sheet would be used to run off copies onto paper by using a solvent to transfer the ink to paper. I also remember stencils, which took a special typewriter and sort of oozed ink from a central drum through the letter holes punched in the stencil material. What was mimeographing, then?

[Patricia]

For some reason I remember the machines producing pale pink and purple copies as being called a 'Banda'.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

You are all (let's see, DixieGal, Nekokami, pshwynk, Patricia, basschick, Zelda, RickyMaveety, Dennis, bbusybookworm, Elsi - probably more that I've missed from this thread) a bunch of strange, distorted types - all this reading, reading, reading. Didn't you, like, play when you were little kids?

I dimly remember playing with other kids, but mostly I was by myself as a child. I was extremely shy (and my sister was extremely NOT shy) and extremely sick most of the time, so while she would be off writing, producing, and directing all of the neighborhood children in a play, I would sit in our big green chair and play audience. Never had to open my mouth ... never had to move .... it was my ideal sort of thing to do. Rag in hand ... thumb in mouth ... book in one hand, and stuffed animal tucked under that arm. That was me ... usually in light green footie pyjamas.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by Patricia

For some reason I remember the machines producing pale pink and purple copies as being called a 'Banda'.

I LOVED THE WAY THEY SMELLED!

@VR: I played hard, every day. Mom said we had to come home when the street lights came on. I went to bed thinking about playing the next day.

• Mud cake bakery
  
• Barbie superheroes (She wasn't into fashion, just saving the world. My sister wanted to play fashion dolls and always got mad when mine got superpowers and could fly. And blink magic like I Dream of Jeannie.)
  
• Daring each other how far into the woods we would go
  
• Bikes bikes bikes

But I kept a bunch of books on the screen porch to read when Mom decided we had gotten too red in the face and had to cool off in the shade.

[nekokami]

I did do other things besides reading. I liked (and still like) making things. When other girls in the neighborhood played with Barbies, I built them houses out of sticks and whatnot. Later my mom (from whom I inherited a lot of this "make stuff" urge) built me a beautiful 3-story dollhouse, and I made furniture, clothes for the dolls, props, etc. And I'd set them up in little scenes and take pictures with my dad's Nikon, to tell stories.

These days for fun (besides reading) I'm creating 3D content and setting up scenes to tell stories. Hm. Some things never change.

[basschick]

good point

Originally Posted by nekokami

Were any of us not strange little kids? (Er... are any of us not now?)

at the beginning of first grade, they skipped me over a semester because i could spell "conservation". the result of this wasn't actually great - the second graders also couldn't spell conservation, but some were a year older and were significantly larger. at that point, i was only able to relate to adults, which probably went a long way to making me seem a lot weirder.

i was SO relieved when a few years later they decided to put me into the gifted program and there were kids i could finally really communicate with - other weird kids - and a teacher who didn't keep freaking out because in fifth grade i could read at what they considered a college level.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by basschick

good point



at the beginning of first grade, they skipped me over a semester because i could spell "conservation". the result of this wasn't actually great - the second graders also couldn't spell conservation, but some were a year older and were significantly larger. at that point, i was only able to relate to adults, which probably went a long way to making me seem a lot weirder.

i was SO relieved when a few years later they decided to put me into the gifted program and there were kids i could finally really communicate with - other weird kids - and a teacher who didn't keep freaking out because in fifth grade i could read at what they considered a college level.

You know what's really sad?? That these days a fifth grade level of reading is pretty much what you see at most colleges ... at least here in the US. The educational system has become so crippled, it's not even a little bit funny. It's tragic.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Right, I remember them being called "ditto" as well, and that there were different colors available (though purple was the most common). This was the process that used a sheet of waxy stuff that would be impressed on a transfer sheet by typing or with a pen/pencil/stylus, then the transfer sheet would be used to run off copies onto paper by using a solvent to transfer the ink to paper. I also remember stencils, which took a special typewriter and sort of oozed ink from a central drum through the letter holes punched in the stencil material. What was mimeographing, then?

The latter, using stencils, was mimeography. There were also "electrostencils", which could scan and produce a stencil from line art, though some folks got adept at drawing directly on a stencil with a stylus. Mimeography was an art form among SF fans.

There's a wonderful SF fan fable called "The Enchanted Duplicator", written by the late Walt Willis, and loosely based on Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Jophan gets a visit from the Spirit of Fandom, and is inspired to make the journey from his home in Mundania to Fandom, where he can ascend the High Tower of Trufandom to the summit, find the Magic Mimeograph, and publish the Perfect Fanzine. He must avoid various temptations like offset printing (way too expensive at the time) as he proceeds on his quest.

Fanzines are still a vital activity in SF fandom, but technology has wrought changes. There are still folks with working mimeographs and the skills to use them, even though copiers are pervasive and inexpensive enough to take the place of mimeographs. But the costs of actually mailing paper publications are prohibitive, and most such things tend to be published electronically, often as PDFs for those who want to print their own.
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

You know what's really sad?? That these days a fifth grade level of reading is pretty much what you see at most colleges ... at least here in the US. The educational system has become so crippled, it's not even a little bit funny. It's tragic.

There are an assortment of factors involved. I think one is a sort of cultural blind spot. We embrace differences in things like athletic ability or artistic talent, and praise star athletes and performers. We shy away from the idea that some kids might just be brighter and learn faster than others, and schools tend to be paced at the rate the majority can achieve. Programs for gifted kids, and the underlying acceptance that they are gifted are harder to come by.
______
Dennis

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

There are an assortment of factors involved. I think one is a sort of cultural blind spot. We embrace differences in things like athletic ability or artistic talent, and praise star athletes and performers. We shy away from the idea that some kids might just be brighter and learn faster than others, and schools tend to be paced at the rate the majority can achieve. Programs for gifted kids, and the underlying acceptance that they are gifted are harder to come by.
______
Dennis

Absolutely. We also don't hire good teachers and pay them what they are worth. Which means that, often, the only people who are willing to teach for the pittence they pay are those who are barely literate themselves. In addition, we've got GWB's "No Child Left Behind" ... which essentially destroyed the Texas education system before he unleashed it on the rest of the US. Then, you've got the religious right trying to cram "creationism" down the throat of the science students. Oh .... don't even get me started on all of the reasons that the US educational system isn't worth a tinker's damn.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

You are all (let's see, DixieGal, Nekokami, pshwynk, Patricia, basschick, Zelda, RickyMaveety, Dennis, bbusybookworm, Elsi - probably more that I've missed from this thread) a bunch of strange, distorted types - all this reading, reading, reading. Didn't you, like, play when you were little kids?

What? Reading isn't play?

I love it. And in case you're looking for an example on the other end of the spectrum, I'm it. My parents didn't read to me when I was a kid and I only picked it up slowly after seeing my older brother devour books daily for years (how he got attracted to it, I have no idea). I think I learned to read about age 5 or so. But it wasn't until I was about 10 that I read a book for enjoyment without being prodded by a teacher. Unfortunately, it was not a habit I developed further even then and so, forty years later, I still find it hard not to be distracted (various tangential thoughts, what's for dinner, do I smell bacon?) while reading. I own far more books than I'll ever read because although my interest in books is sky high, my ability to plow through them with both pleasure and efficiency is dreadfully poor.

My SO's older brother is a voracious reader, as is she. They got it from their parents. Older brother's wife isn't a voracious reader, and older brother would come home from work, and plunk himself down in front of the TV till dinner was served. Neither read to the kids. The kids never picked up the habit. Older son would go into a trance when the TV went on...

Don't ever not read to your kids daily. Don't ever let your kids not read to your grandkids daily. But you already knew that.

I hope folks here know that. Too many folks view reading as a chore, to be done because you have to, and never learned to view reading as a pleasure in itself. Reading to your kids when they are too young to do it themselves is one of the most effective ways I know of conveying the idea that it's fun to read.
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Dennis