My experience and of many people I know from other parts of the world, is different. Libraries are one thing, what kids are exposed to is another. If you look based on numbers what is popular among kids is definitely not nature documentaries, or similar things related to the real natural world, but mostly silly fantasy.

Dinosaurs are popular and the article was arguing that is not ok if you put it in perspective to the creatures that exist. Why make dinosaurs so well known and popular while the creatures that exist today not? Probably Hollywood and movies like Jurassic Park made dinosaurs a lot more popular.

Point is kids, and all humans actually, should be exposed more to the real and wonderful world we live in rather than fantasies that are mostly made by those who want to sell (movies, books, art).

Schools are a livestock-like way of "educating" children unfortunately. Teachers have "jobs", kids have parents who work, and so they end up being forced to go to that place and "learn". They are labeled based on how well they do in school and all that.

I cannot see that as "education" as much as "forced" daycare.

That being said yes you should not force kids to learn this or that, you should make them curios. Expose them to real stuff. What you end up being excited about comes from enculturation/upbringing. So we need a saner environment. Part of it is exposing kids to real and wonderful information about the natural world.

Imagination cannot work without en environment we are exposed to. And often that was the real world - observing birds fly, observing that thing in the sky we called the "moon", and so on. The more we are exposed to the real world, the more of that imagination can become complex and useful.

People could not imagine flying to the Moon without this knowledge.

Martians look like lobsters or human like creatures with eyes and a head, first attempts to fly were by using wings like birds, and so on.

Reality is what inspires humans to think and imagine. Kids and people of all ages are mostly exposed to bullshit content, from movies to videos, books to "entertainment". Of course they become uninterested in the real world.

Parents have to trade themselves in this society and often do not have much time for their kids. It is easy to let them in front of the TV or a tablet/phone - and since most content is simplistic and fantasy/nonsense produced to get more views (meaning money) since this is also easier than producing good content, the result is obviously unicorns and dinosaurs :)

Same reason why so many movie remakes or based on books that are already popular. If something was selling well, why not continue to do the same content?

We made a book about this - tromsite.com/trombooks/#flipbo…

@Tio @Angela Miller

I'm just gonna leave this link here 'cause I think this is what happens to a society when the general population gets too detached from science and reality. It's not just about what kids watch or read, we want them to become knowledgeable adults when they grow up so that they don't fall into the same pits of ignorance that many have unfortunately. And you only have to look at the popularity of movies vs science documentaries to see where we're headed right now...