A few years later (2nd or 3rd grade) I got into a mild argument with my music teacher when she off-handedly mentioned there was not life on other planets in our solar system. I was insistent that there was and I had seen pictures. To her credit, she asked me to bring her that evidence, and once I did she explained what part of the text said - these were hypotheticals. _If_ alien life could live in Jupiter, what might it look like.
I remember a vague sense of disappointment at the time, but overall I think I'm glad I was fooled in that way at such a formative age. Forming big thoughts from what I read and later learning what part of what I read meant that changed my conclusions is a lesson that I think turned out well for me.
In contrast, I think Santa is a terrible, terrible thing - adults lying to kids about something that is already fun and wonderful to the kids, and then using it as a threat ("better be good or else!"), only to eventually have the kids learn it was all a lie...I fail to see much positive coming from that. (and yet, people are aghast at the very prospect of kids finding out early - it would "ruin" the holidays)
I'm not really sure where the material discussed in the article fall - it read to me like these was material that WASN'T intended to trick children, but rather targeted at adults without making that clear, but I might be misunderstanding.
A few years later (2nd or 3rd grade) I got into a mild argument with my music teacher when she off-handedly mentioned there was not life on other planets in our solar system. I was insistent that there was and I had seen pictures. To her credit, she asked me to bring her that evidence, and once I did she explained what part of the text said - these were hypotheticals. _If_ alien life could live in Jupiter, what might it look like.
I remember a vague sense of disappointment at the time, but overall I think I'm glad I was fooled in that way at such a formative age. Forming big thoughts from what I read and later learning what part of what I read meant that changed my conclusions is a lesson that I think turned out well for me.
In contrast, I think Santa is a terrible, terrible thing - adults lying to kids about something that is already fun and wonderful to the kids, and then using it as a threat ("better be good or else!"), only to eventually have the kids learn it was all a lie...I fail to see much positive coming from that. (and yet, people are aghast at the very prospect of kids finding out early - it would "ruin" the holidays)
I'm not really sure where the material discussed in the article fall - it read to me like these was material that WASN'T intended to trick children, but rather targeted at adults without making that clear, but I might be misunderstanding.