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Here comes science!

To start off:

* They Might Be Giants are lovely,

* I am delighted that TMBG are putting out children's albums. I heartily encourage all bands to put out children's albums.

 

Okay. Got that out of the way. So, the latest TMBG kids album is called Here Comes Science, and it looks like a lot of fun. If I had littles, there's a pretty good chance that I would buy this album for them. I am particularly pleased by message that flows through 'Why does the sun shine?' followed by 'Why does the sun really shine?' ("Forget that song/They got it wrong/That thesis has been rendered invalid").

But of course, there's a fair bit of propaganda in there as well, as there often is with this kind of valorisation of science. It's a great idea to teach your children about science, but it might be useful to also have some discussions about the limits of the scientific method.

 

For example, while this is a lovely little clip about electric cars....well, honestly, if everyone swapped from regular cars to electric cars, we'd be just as screwed, environmentally. You can't solve climate change with science alone. You also need political and social change. Okay, enough stern words. Now you can go sing along.

Posted: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 7:28 AM by sky

Comments

Tim said:

Interestingly, but completely unrelated, on a bootleg of a concert earlier this year where they unveil 'Why does the sun really shine?', TMBG discuss another propaganda/controversy side of it - having initially thought 'science: not controversial', they discovered making the album was a trap, a 'suicide mission for TMBG at Walmarts everywhere'. Because, for one thing, they cover evolution, which apparently some people (on myspace!) weren't too fond of, and the office found out about this discomfort, and... sigh. Still on the album though.

To be honest, I had a similar reaction to the 'Electric Car' clip, at least in thinking 'well, there's more to it than that...', and ideally I'd like everything to be as accurate as possible, but if the album acts as a start to further, more in-depth interest and discussion of science, then that's a good thing? Or, most songs on the album could be presented with [citation needed] next to the lyrics ;)

Also, you don't need kids in order to buy it (or, at least, I think there's a decent chance I'm going to buy it myself, partly because 'Electric Car' is a ridiculously fun song, even with the caveats about how it won't fix things in itself)! I also seem to have bought several other albums aimed at children and the young at heart in the last year, despite absence of children and no desire to start accumulating said small people!

# September 9, 2009 8:42 AM

sky said:

I agree completely. It's great as long as it's a starting-point for discussion, rather than the whole story in itself. (Mind you, I think I feel this way about most work. Bible stories for kids? Sure! Just as long as you get them to think about it critically...)

# September 9, 2009 9:57 AM
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