Book publishers consider American children too dumb to grasp elements of physics

[k4kyv]

From what the author said in the interview, I gather those books were not intended to be used as textbooks in school.  Maybe in a school library, yes.  The idea was to perk up a kid's interest things like black holes and relativity in an entertaining way.  Many kids who find mathematics as taught in school extremely boring, would be fascinated by concepts that defy daily observation, like clocks slowing down while on a moving train as the mass of the clock increases, or being able to travel for thousands of years to another solar system in a space ship and return to earth only few years older and meet distant descendants.

I noticed Amazon.com only has a few copies each of the ones I checked out (I don't intend to buy any for myself), so they must not be commercially available for sale in US.

[WD8BIL]

The idea was to perk up a kid's interest things like black holes and relativity in an entertaining way.

Good point Don. Not every kid is gonna grow up to be a scientist. Heck.... we need heavy equipment ops too.

[Art]

"Many kids who find mathematics as taught in school extremely boring, would be fascinated by concepts that defy daily observation"

This I can identify with . . . . math before its relation to real life was difficult . . . that changed dramatically when it was applied to practical applications. Unfortunately, that didn't occur until college. Theory is great but the application to the real world was important to me. Maybe I should have become a heavy equipment operator after all. . .

The (paraphrased) original question still remains valid and open; Have US children fallen behind the rest of the world to the extent they cannot read books and assimilate information to the extent others can? I think we have to admit the answer may be yes.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

The idea was to perk up a kid's interest things like black holes and relativity in an entertaining way.  Many kids who find mathematics as taught in school extremely boring, would be fascinated by concepts that defy daily observation, like clocks slowing down while on a moving train as the mass of the clock increases, or being able to travel for thousands of years to another solar system in a space ship and return to earth only few years older and meet distant descendants.

They only need to go through the StarGate to visualize the concept of time and space travel.

Harry Potter will take them to the mystical world of wizardry.

[k4kyv]

The (paraphrased) original question still remains valid and open; Have US children fallen behind the rest of the world to the extent they cannot read books and assimilate information to the extent others can? I think we have to admit the answer may be yes.

That was my original point.  The author alleges he was told that his books are too "English" for American kids, whatever that is supposed to mean.  But kids from other countries, including China, which has a totally alien language and nearly a totally alien culture, were able to to appreciate it.  So why would American kids, who wouldn't even need to have the book translated from the original, and have a very similar culture, not be expected to be capable of assimilating the contents?