
Unpublished children's notebooks reveal poignant view of history - pepys
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/unpublished-childrens-notebooks/
======
anateus
Related: Onfim is a 13th century Novgorodian kid whose writing exercises and
drawings survived:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onfim](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](http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-
sources/408)

~~~
benbreen
Onfim is just wonderful, thank you for that! (I love the one of an adult
horseman labelled "Onfim.")

At some point I should make a collection of all the kid's scribbles I've seen
in archives. I remember one in the Huntington Library that was a contemporary
copy of John Donne poems, written in beautiful script, but interspersed with a
4-year-olds scribbles of faces and animals via quill pen. It was hilarious.

I also love Darwin's kids drawings on the back of his "Origin of Species"
manuscript: [http://theappendix.net/posts/2014/02/darwins-children-
drew-v...](http://theappendix.net/posts/2014/02/darwins-children-drew-
vegetable-battles-on-the-origin-of-species)

------
troughway
>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.”

Such poetry makes me want to read the rest of this notebook.

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dkmn
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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djaque
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.

~~~
Spooky23
They fixed them. Most have thin covers now, and fancy ones are plastic.

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seph-reed
> 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.

~~~
fit2rule
It might be a Western thing - I know kids in Bali who still plant trees and
dream of what the world will be like when they grow old in the shadows they
will provide. Hope is a human constant - it seems there are conditions where
it isn't necessarily foremost though. Perhaps, decadence.

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qzw
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.

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YeGoblynQueenne
The notebook from Belarus has the inscription тетрадь which, the internet
tells me, reads "tetrad'" and means, well, "notebook".

I find that funny. In greek, "ΤΕΤΡΑΔΙΟ", spelled almost identically and
pronounced "tetradio" is, also, the notebook.

The root of the word seems to be the Greek word for a "quad" (four things)
i.e. "tetrada". I had always wondered why we use this word for notebooks- what
are the "four things" it's named after? I'm more curious now that I see
Belarussians also use a similar word for their notebooks.

~~~
sergeykish
Interesting, it was just a foreign word in my childhood. Now I see it is
related to "тетраэдр" (τετρά-εδρον) and Tetra Pak. Possible origin:

* four-leaved pamphlet [1]

* four pages of a wax tablet [2]

* fourth of a standard paper size [3]

[1]
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%84%CF%81%CE%A...](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%84%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%82)

[2]
[https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0...](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C)

[3]
[https://lexicography.online/etymology/%D1%82/%D1%82%D0%B5%D1...](https://lexicography.online/etymology/%D1%82/%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C)

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
>> Interesting, it was just a foreign word in my childhood. Now I see it is
related to "тетраэдр" (τετρά-εδρον) and Tetra Pak. Possible origin:

And Tetris, of course :)

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ontouchstart
[https://www.exercisebookarchive.org/books/chn7079xm77781/](https://www.exercisebookarchive.org/books/chn7079xm77781/)

Based on the content on the page, the year of this book should be 67, not 77.

