It can't be exciting at all because the kids are fed this bland Frankenstein crap soup we just read about. But it _could_ be exciting. Bertrand Russel said this is his autobiography:
"At the age of eleven, I began Euclid, with my brother as my tutor. This was one of the great events of my life, as dazzling as first love. I had not imagined that there was anything so delicious in the world."
Granted, maybe Russel is a little smarter than average, but we're denying that same pleasure to kids everywhere through mediocre books and education.
Also, I think it is more important to have good books for kids, as when you're older you are better equipped to adjust for and handle crap books.
Another issue is that we don't give kids anywhere the credit we should. One of my favorite things is to 'play math' with my kids on my whiteboard (8 and 5). We play with things like graph theory and other math concepts that they wouldn't normally see until later grades. It's simplified to be sure, but they get a kick out of exploring a graph and seeing simple results and puzzles.
"At the age of eleven, I began Euclid, with my brother as my tutor. This was one of the great events of my life, as dazzling as first love. I had not imagined that there was anything so delicious in the world."
Granted, maybe Russel is a little smarter than average, but we're denying that same pleasure to kids everywhere through mediocre books and education.
Also, I think it is more important to have good books for kids, as when you're older you are better equipped to adjust for and handle crap books.
Another issue is that we don't give kids anywhere the credit we should. One of my favorite things is to 'play math' with my kids on my whiteboard (8 and 5). We play with things like graph theory and other math concepts that they wouldn't normally see until later grades. It's simplified to be sure, but they get a kick out of exploring a graph and seeing simple results and puzzles.