I'd be the most vocal opponent of an encyclopedia *censored* for children.
But I would be a very vocal proponent of an encyclopedia *adapted* for
children. Not by dumbing it down and not by removing information that some
cultures, religions or governments consider immoral or
mature-audiences-only, but by rewriting the information in a way that
children will find interesting and easy - indeed, possible - to learn.
When I grew up in Moscow, I had an encyclopedia for children at home. I
liked the pictures, but I didn't read a lot of the text - it was for older
children, 14 and more. But I had an aunt who had another encyclopedia for
younger children, and every time I visited that aunt, I spent most of time
at her home reading that encyclopedia. I learned a lot of what I know from
it, and I got my love for encyclopedias in general from it.
Both were printed in Russian in the Soviet Union, so they also had, um,
ideological adaptations, which I was smart enough to spot (yay for me), but
the reason I loved it is that it had large illustrations, clear and large
font and engaging language. It doesn't mean that the articles were short,
for example - some of them were several pages long. It just means that it
was well-adapted.
I don't know how to create a new thing that would do his well. Maybe some
consultation from education experts would be good. And these would have to
come from different cultures - again, not fot censorship, but for better
adaptation. Children in Arab countries won't necessarily be engaged by the
same things as children in France, and children in Russia won't necessarily
love the illustration style enjoyed by children in Argentina.
But TLDR - a Wikpedia *adapted* for children is a good idea.
--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
2015-03-18 14:59 GMT+02:00 Marc A. Pelletier <marc(a)uberbox.org>rg>:
On 15-03-18 03:09 AM, Mathias Damour wrote:
[from the Convention on the Rights of the Child]
"[...] this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas of all kinds"
Interestingly enough, to me this reads /against/ the idea of a
"Wikipedia for Kids" insofar as the intent is to curate, limit, or
restrict the encyclopedia to material or language "apropriate" for
children.
For instance, would a Russian Kids' Wikipedia carefully avoid "promotion
of homosexuality" as their law now demands (to pick one salient example
amongst thousands).
-- Marc
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