

Books all kids should read at school (a list) - snitko
http://romansnitko.posterous.com/books-all-kids-should-read-at-school-0

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swombat
I'm not sure what's remarkable about this list. It presents one person's point
of view. I sure hope that someone who wants to come up with a real reading
list for children will be _much_ less one-sided.

Also, the lack of fiction on this list makes it pretty terrible. What a boring
reading list.

~~~
axod
I agree. People should read what they like.

This list is pretty much just biology/psychology - something that personally
isn't my idea of fun. Good luck trying to get kids to read those books :/ What
kid really wants to read a book on nutrition? Probably the kid who doesn't
_need_ to read a book on nutrition that's who.

If you're going to come up with a list of books you personally believe kids
should read, at least try and make it slightly varied. And maybe even
fun/enjoyable. Or change the title to "List of biology/psychology books".

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snitko
The first three books, for example, are essential for those who'd like to live
a longer life. Personally, I find living to be quite a fun, comparing to being
dead. I think people should be taught basic ideas about how to stay alive,
which these books present.

~~~
axod
BS. Sleeping 8 hours a night doesn't make you live longer.

Sleeping less than 2 hours a night for a long period of time may make you live
less.

Same with diet. Eat a normal average diet, and you're set. Eat MacDonalds
every day for breakfast, and maybe you'll die a bit earlier.

Don't forget also:

total happiness = time spent doing something * happiness level

eg, I would hate to maximize for 'time' at the expense of average happiness
level.

The chances are we'll mostly die from accidents, cancer, etc anyway.

~~~
snitko
What you're saying is a simplification. Not eating from McDonalds is not
enough. Cancer was linked to specific diets, so don't think you're safe just
because you're no a fastfood fan. Also significant number of accidents on the
roads happen because people are drowsy - a result of a huge sleep debt, which
might not be as obvious (you may sleep 8 hours the night before and steel be
drowsy at the wheel).

~~~
axod
>> "Also significant number of accidents on the roads happen because people
are drowsy"

Show some evidence. I don't buy it.

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snitko
Check out this for example: <http://www.tfhrc.gov/humanfac/sleep/sleepweb.htm>
People were sleep deprived, then tested on a road simulator.

Also, if you're looking for some data, the problem is that many fatal
accidents' causes are reported as unknown. Given the results of the
simulation, a majority of those accidents may be related to sleep deprivation.

~~~
axod
SLEEP DEPRIVED != not sleeping 8 hours a night.

Sleep deprivation is dangerous. But it's also obvious. You don't need to read
a book to know that.

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snitko
Well , listen, you're wrong - that's why you should read the book. Say you
sleep 7 hours a night instead of 8. Brain keeps track of the sleep you take.
If you miss some, it adds it to your sleep debt. Then after a week you got
full 8 hours extra sleep debt and even if you sleep 8 hours the night before
you drive, you'll feel drowsy very soon after you wake up.

Researches have been conducted which proved that the condition after a lack of
sleep 1 hour each night during a week would be equal to the condition when you
haven't slept through the night.

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michaelkeenan
If we want children to understand nutrition, exercise, sleep, social skills,
or any other subject, then we should figure out how best to teach those
subjects. It might be books or it might be normal classes. I strongly suspect
there are many children, especially those with autodidactic tendencies, who
could learn most subjects better and faster from books than from lectures. But
that probably isn't all children.

I propose offering students a choice - would you like a class on nutrition, or
would you like to read the/a book on nutrition, and have an expert available
for questions (preferably online)? Students who choose unstructured learning
but then fail to achieve can be placed into classes.

This way, industrious or gifted students won't be held back by the pace of
other students, or by the speed at which the teacher speaks. And this might
encourage autodidacticism, which I think is incredibly valuable and efficient.

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wdewind
The only problem I have with this post is the "at school" part. Schools are
not really for life-education like this (sadly). It's not feasible in a place
where cultures clash so much in the class room like the US, you risk offending
etc., and as stupid as it sounds it's a real issue. Anyone familiar with city
public schools can agree...

~~~
tokenadult
Agreed. I homeschool my children so that they can read a lot more than
children are expected to read in school. Personally, I'm glad my children also
read better books than the books suggested in the submitted blog post.

~~~
snitko
Could you tell a bit more about homeschooling? Experience, advices? What's the
hardest thing about it, for example?

~~~
michaelkeenan
You might be interested in the "unschooling" ideas of David Friedman (son of
Milton Friedman):

[http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2006/02/case-for-
unschool...](http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2006/02/case-for-
unschooling.html)

[http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2006/02/unschooling-
advan...](http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2006/02/unschooling-advantage-of-
real-world.html)

[http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2007/12/home-
unschooling-...](http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2007/12/home-unschooling-
theory.html)

[http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2007/12/home-
unschooling-...](http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2007/12/home-unschooling-
practice.html)

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unignorant
> I believe teaching literature should be partly replaced by the essential
> subjects that contribute to the quality of life. I'm not saying fiction is
> useless but there are certainly things out there that are much more
> important.

Fiction/literature can contribute quite significantly to 'quality of life.'
For instance in my n=1 study, it has shown to be one of the most significant
factors. If there is one thing about my future of which I am certain, it is
that I will always enjoy (and learn from) good fiction.

Basically, people are different; we have different interests. I'm wary of any
effort to generalize such a common curriculum.

~~~
snitko
I'm not saying ban fiction. All I'm saying - you may enjoy good fiction for a
lot longer time if you eat right, exercise and sleep well.

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mberning
Nice post, but I feel like a lot of topics covered in this list are far from
being well understood. Especially 'proper' nutrition.

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snitko
True. We're barely our of the jungle and science knows so little yet. But that
doesn't mean we should avoid teaching these subjects. There are a lot of
useful and important things that were proven to work that it now seems a crime
to ignore them.

~~~
mberning
I agree, if you read a book about nutrition and realize that it just covers a
current understand of nutrition, then I think that is fine.

The danger is that people read these books and don't realize or don't care
about the prior statement. People start feeding their kids based on this
advice, policy makers start making policy, and then the next thing you know we
find out we were all wrong. Kind of like the current food pyramid we find
ourselves with now. Some day it will be updated, and then 20 years later it
will be updated again.

~~~
snitko
You're exactly right, this danger exists. And if you read the book on
nutrition I suggested, you will see how careful the author is about making
conclusions. He actually warns about pretty much the same thing you've just
said. Same thing you will see in most of the books I recommended. After
reading all those books I have a great sense of respect for all those people
seeing how accurate and careful they are in what they say and how this may
affect other people.

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nathanh
Lists like these always makes me think about the effects of forced reading.
The books I've enjoyed most I've chosen to read. Being forced to read some
books, even great books, have ruined them for me.

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angstrom
Just getting people to read in general is an accomplishment. I saw some
statistics once that are pretty much summed up by this page:
<http://www.humorwriters.org/startlingstats.html>

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ErrantX
It's a good list; but lets not ignore the pure sciences either! Text books are
usually pretty boring so "A Briefer History of Time" should be on there.
"Nemesis" maybe because it's a good story as well.

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mslagh
Great post. I've loved following 100redesigns too..

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snitko
Thanks, I appreciate that. Have not updated 100redesigns for a while. New
project eats all of the time.

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c00p3r
Self-promotion of mediocre blog posts - it's called spam, isn't it?

