Today's grr-some things

[ladyofastolat]

1. Non-fiction books with no page numbers. Children's non-fiction books always have a contents page and an index, even when the book is aimed at 5 year olds and has only a few sentences a page. This is so children can learn how to use such things, and is all well and good. However, today I was faced with a request from a teacher who had decided to do a topic that isn't on the curriculum, but still expected a box full of books on it. (This is yet another grr-some thing.) Since it wasn't on the curriculum, there were precisely NO children's books on it, but I thought there was a possibility that I might get odd paragraphs here and there in books on broader topics. This required searching in about a hundred books. The topic in question was indeed mentioned in the index of a few of them, but in several cases, there book didn't actually contain page numbers. Or, rather, the number for page 1 appeared at the top left, the number pages 2, 3, 4 and 5 were missing, 6 had its number lurking at the bottom right, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 were missing... and so on. Very, very annoying.

2. Blurbs that ruin the entire plot. I also had to search for children's novels about a particular topic, and I found a likely-looking candidate. However, the blurb was a complete summary of the entire book, even including words along the lines of "until it reaches an exciting conclusion, in which..." This happens far too often. I've read several books in which the shock revelation that happened on page 500 had been totally ruined by the blurb. Why do they do it? I know that writing blurbs is hard; it's something I always find very difficult when posting my own fanfic. You don't want to spoil major plot twists, but neither do you want to say so little that the reader has no idea what the book is about. But, still, summarising the entire book, even including the final chapter. Why?

3. Public toilets with automatic hand-washing units. I went to some public toilets today that had 6 cubicles, but only two hand-washing units. When you put your hands in, you got blasted with a ridiculous amount of soap - soap that made my hands itch for hours afterwards. Then you get what felt like a bath-load of warm water, and many seconds later, you got a very long blast of hot air. The whole cycle lasted a lot longer than the average toilet visit, so the result was a long queue for hand-washing, even though there was no queue for the toilets. The person in front of me walked off without drying their hands, but I still had to stand there for what felt like a good minute while it finished its cycle, before I could start washing my hands. Grr!

Comments

[aliasse.livejournal.com]

Like you, I find the fact that you can only get history books on National Curriculum topics SO depressing. As though there isn't any other history. SURELY children would like to read about other things? It's also frustrating that anything that is more general - like, for example, a book on archaeology - always seems to be aimed at KS2. As a historian (ahem), I really hope that the NC for history will be dropped. It's so ridiculously dry and intellectual and at the same time so narrow. Or I really hope the people who are in charge of commissioning history books for educational publishers are all sacked en masse and replaced with people who have A Modicum of Imagination.

Sometimes I like to compose my Room 101 list and anything that isn't a sink and a towel for washing ones hands is Number 1, whatever might come further down. Wellinghall is clearly lying.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'd heard of them, but not seen them. For public places, they're unbeatable.

[aliasse.livejournal.com]

You weren't supposed to see that:)

I understand that they're supposed to be more hygienic, but GGGRRRRRRR! However, I will take your word about the Dyson.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh, yes. While having a large number of books on curriculum topics is very helpful to us School Library Service librarians - I still remember with a shudder the first few years of the QCA schemes of work, before publishing had caught up, when dozens of schools were asking for boxes on books on seaside holidays in the past for year 2 - something we had no books on... (Um... That sentence has got out of control, and I need to start again.) While it's useful in one way, it's such a shame that there are no books outside its limits. I have 8 shelves on books on Tudors, all aimed at year 4, all about rich and poor or Henry VIII, but barely half a shelf on the entire Middle Ages. I read lots of history books as a child purely for pleasure, and there doesn't seem to be any such books around now. Well, except for Horrible Histories and similar, I suppose.

I hate using a hand-drier, and actually hardly ever do so, preferring to walk out with my hands dripping, wiping them on my clothes as I do so. Probably horribly unhygienic, but, hey...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Science apparently supports your stance : http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/New-evidence-suggests-electric-hand-dryers-in-public-toilets-pose-health-risk-38127-2/

Though I don't know why that press release is 2009 because I'm sure I heard about this years ago, and a further look suggests the original report was 1998. Pressure from towel manufacturers, perhaps...?

[aliasse.livejournal.com]

I KNEW it!

[aliasse.livejournal.com]

Yes, you have to dig really hard for anything else. I'm always interested in stuff which addresses concepts of history for primary-aged pupils - especially 'time-line', the passage of time - and there are a few good titles for that. Don't know how many of them are in print though.

I remember drawing my little diagram of the three-field system at junior school. How does the Modern Child get by without knowing this!

Personally I hate the Horrible Histories. Not least because of their ubiquity.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Confession time: I will only wash / dry my hands in a public loo if there is a reasonable chance that they will end up cleaner as a result.