Re: attack on Reading Recovery

["George N. Schmidt" <Csubstance@AOL.COM>]

In a message dated 2/3/00 11:36:11 PM, MarcKay@AOL.COM writes:

<< I wasn't aware that five and six year olds could typically recognize
Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Does this have something to do with Barney?
 >>

In my experience, back in the early to mid 1990s, it had more to do with the
movie "Jurassic Park," which my son, then five, memorized.

At one point, Danny could give you a taxonomy of about 100 dinosaurs. He also
had a collection large enough to fill two storage boxes, cards, books, and
several movies. When he was six, he read the book "Jurassic Park" based on
the same motivation -- his love for dinosaurs. Once, at Bush Gardens, he
organized a dinosaur game and chased little girls around doing his "T-Rex"
hop.

For a couple of years, he had a bearded dragon as a pet, adding to his
knowledge of reptiles (although by then he knew the research about dinosaurs
and avians). He has since forgotten most of what he mastered during his
dinosaur phase. I doubt he can name ten dinosaurs today (he is now ten).

He always hated "Barney" because of its cloying inauthenticity. "The one
color they weren't," he once told me angrily, "was purple."

George

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