While I’ve been telling friends, family and associates about my new self-published Kindle book (paperback pending; I ordered 20), I thought many times about other diarists’ books mentioned on dKos. I neglected to think about posting about mine here until just now so here goes. There are several beloved writers here I thought about many times while I was writing the piece, which began in April of this year. It is intended to be read aloud to preschoolers and its title is this diary’s title. The graphic on display was the main influence that inspired me to write it.
The Kindle book lives on Amazon here www.amazon.com/...
and I have a supporting website for it at achosinfo.com
I have a daily-RTs Twitter account at twitter.com/...
Pinterest boards I actually love at www.pinterest.com/...
and someday I’ll get YouTube videos up but I have the start of some playlists at www.youtube.com/…
I’ve been writing my whole life. This is the first time I’ve stuck my name on a book. The fact that it’s for kids is no surprise. My Chinese-culture influence from Sima Qian is in full effect as I juxtapose important content (stuff I can’t just come right out and say). Here is the explainer for grown-ups that comes at the back:
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MY PROCESS
Responding to the National Research Council research leading up to the Next Generation Science Standards, I spent most of a year reading a variety of sources on the history of science in preparation for this effort. I had a notion there is a window of opportunity to introduce preschoolers to science in a way that has not been tried before.
When an adult reads aloud to a very young child, the child is as much reading the reactions of the grown-up as listening to the words. Is it possible that during this nurturing exchange the child might assimilate a few names, places, dates, or concepts even when they are years from understanding their meaning? Could this process spark a lifetime of scientific curiosity and learning?
To be honest, I do not know if my approach will translate into the sort of general interest in science that I hope it will encourage in young people. My hope is someday I will receive an email from a young scientist who recalls this short work as influential for their career. I am patiently looking forward to some very, very young peer review, as well as critiques by caring parents, science historians and practicing scientists.
I have tried to embody several outlooks at the heart of the nextgenscience.org standards in my text, while casting a net of names, dates and gateway-ideas. NGSS encourages questions over answers as well as an awareness of how new answers produce questions, so my storytelling follows this spirit. Many of the characters from the story of science presented here were talented toddlers themselves. I have spent hours wondering when and how science came into their minds.
By way of disclaimer, this history is not a Best-Of account of scientists. My choices are meant as a "cognitive scaffolding" on which knowledge can grow. The content of ACHOS could be used by older kids to brush up on basics and landmarks, but prose in this history is meant to appeal to a pre-cognitive stage. If Logos, Ethos and Pathos are considered seriously then my ACHOS is pre-Logos.
I chose the title for its appeal … to me. The logo, or brand, a light-hearted geometric figure in the ACHOS circle, means only what a child or their reader decides it means.
The years 1750-1900 were written from April to August 2019. I have no certain timeline for the years to come but 1901-1926 are now in progress.
There is a lot of information out there to support the scientifically curious. I have curated links to some of it at ACHOSinfo.com.
I wish to thank any parent, any adult, who takes the time to read these pages to a child, and the same thing goes for any older kids reading aloud to preschoolers. Reading out loud to people of preschool age is an act of giving that has lasting meaning and impact. The ways children organize what they know affects everything they ever learn. Maybe someday one of those children might thank you, too.
Philip Merrill
I understand if some people just can’t get behind this. When I first had the idea at El Monte Station, I thought it could be tested and improved. As far as the #NGSS standards, this is inspired by them but outside their scope. For preschoolers, it is harmless fun if a grown-up wants to read it out loud. NOT for fun time. More like for book #3, it’s time to go to sleep, and how about if I read something I want to read. You can see I am expecting grandchildren. Feel free to fry me here. Anyone interested in a promotional-PDF version, please KosMail me here with an email address and I’ll send you a PDF.
One of the best two engineers I know said, “I am so proud of you” when he saw this. That’s all he said. I’ll understand if someone flames me. It’s kind of a way-out idea. But it’s mine.
