I can remember as a child thinking, “Oh, no! I hope Mom doesn’t sit down and watch TV with us.” Her problem was she was educated and our problem was that she was contagious. “Have you ever heard anyone talk that way?” she’d say or, “What a bad actor. No one moves around like that, he looks like a plank of wood with legs.” “Have you ever noticed all westerns have a fat or an old guy that we’re to think is funny, but is really dumb?” she’d point out.
Soon we saw a shows through her eyes. They were ruined. Suddenly we could hardly stand to be in the same room with the silly shows even at a friend’s house and you know being with a friend makes a show taste better.
I’m reading two history books, one published in 1944 the other 1918 both at fourth grade level, and both written with complex sentence structure, which I’m told children never understand. I rewriting all my children’s books to simplify them somewhat but you know, two hundred years ago it was common to enter college at age 13? One of my goals, therefore, is to ruin kids. Do you want to help? My hope is stretch kid’s minds a little so they won’t be satisfied with the mundane.  nancymauerman.com