That’s right. The trusted news source of childhood lied to an entire generation of gullible children in the 1960. How do I know this?
First, I’m reading Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. The biography casts doubt upon the 1960a Weekly Reader stories that assured school children that policemen in the Unites States of America cared so about little children that they made sure all the bad guys were in prison. Furthermore, children were assured that policemen were friends we could trust. If you’re of a certain age and want to continue believing that assertion, don’t read Lehr and O’Neill’s book.
Second, a Weekly Reader article about volcanoes contained a map that showed the locations of dead volcanoes all over the world. It intimated that volcanoes quit erupting thousands and thousands of years ago, so children didn’t need to worry about them. At all. As a kid growing up in tornado country, the volcano map lifted a burden of worry from my shoulders. I needed to be vigilant about tornadoes from May through September, but volcanoes didn’t warrant a second thought. Whew! Since then, volcanoes in countries like the Philippines and even in the USA–Mount St. Helens and Kilauea come to mind–proved that news story untrue.
But I’m giving Weekly Reader’s editorial staff the benefit of the doubt, assuming they are operating from a paradigm common to many adults, including myself. Adults can’t keep the world perfectly safe for kids, but we allow them to believe we can until they’re old enough to handle the truth and protect themselves.
Sometimes, I wish I was a kid again.
