On my school bus today two of my first graders got into an argument about whether or not mermaids are real. The girl had a book called "Are Mermaids Real? (I Want To Know!)". The Goodreads page for this indicates that this is a 'narrative text' that offers 'possible scientific explanations for the myths'. She also insisted that when she had gone to the seashore that she saw one, she really did! A boy, however, decided that this was all hogwash, and claimed that they don't exist, and even though he loves this little girl and tells her almost everyday that he loves her (and do you love me too?), that no way do mermaids exist.
Of course I got asked what I thought, and I told the boy that if he doesn't want to believe, then he doesn't have to believe, and I told the girl that if you want them to exist, they are very real. It was a craptacular answer, really, and even now I wish I had gotten into a better discussion with them about how you determine what is real and what is not, and the power of belief and myth and so forth. But then I think, they are in first grade, why can't I just let them enjoy their little love spat.
It's hard to know how to answer anybody these days, in this time in which people generally believe whatever it is that they want to believe. Believe in UFOs? Trump? Unicorns? Goody for you! For all the power of the information age, I am convinced that people are more ignorant than they ever have been. There's no shortage of books that offer 'possible scientific explanations' for anything, but the explosion of narrative texts means that people now can find support for whatever it is they want to believe. Not to mention the dozens of channels on TV that cater to whatever fringe idea somebody has, or the internet and its various forms of conspiracy theories and whackjob ideologies. The information superhighway of the 21st century leads far too many people off of a cliff.
Fortunately, the Goodreads page of this author who specializes in works for young children has many other works that are of a more serious nature. And it appears that her knowledge base is as wide as anybody in this age...she has written on Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge (current events(; The Grassland Biome (science!); Counting Coins and Bills (economics), and whether or not King Arthur was real (history). Oh, and don't forget her books about aliens, unicorns, and countless other creatures of the universe.
I'm glad that my first graders have such an outstanding base of knowledge to work with.
