#lying to kids about science
my library purchased a new copy of this this year! I’m going to try and convince our collections department that actually, this was a Mistake and it should be weeded immediately but in the meantime, please, i need someone to share my pain (Submitted by exhausted librarian)
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this submission is causing me real physical pain like its literally like getting punched in the gut multiple times. i’m assuming here that this was a conscious choice, because i cannot imagine getting a biology book for kids published with this kind of flagrant mistake.
like not to Go Off but first of all this was a science communicator who decided this was a good way to go about talking about mushrooms and fungi because apparently kids can’t understand that mushrooms are a different thing like plants and animals are different things, and then the publisher agreed that yes, this is good, we can totally heavily imply/outright state that mushrooms are plants by putting them on the front and back cover under the words “a book about plants without flowers” and then further imply/outright state that all plants that dont flower (apparently including mushrooms) fall under the ‘gymnosperm’ label, which by the way is another thing: if we’re assuming that the author did this to try to dumb it down for kids because referring to fungi as ‘not plants’ is too complicated, WHY are they using the ‘gymnosperm’ terminology on the back cover and WHY are they applying that term to all plants that don’t flower?? or are they using it as a specific example of plants that don’t flower, in which case it’s a poorly placed description??? like you gotta choose!!! are you gonna be specific or not!!!
also not to be Like That but JUST saying this strikes me as an example of like… very poor attention being given to botany and mycology in primary education. if you came to a kid’s publisher with a book that was like, ‘things that don’t walk: animals without legs’ and it had bacteria illustrated all over the cover and the back cover was like ‘WHAT is the squamata reptile family and WHY don’t they have legs’ i DOUBT that would fly lmao
Lying to kids about science is the absolute worst thing you can possibly do, ever.
This makes me SO MAD.
August 26, 2019
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