Let’s Learn Some Stuff Down the Road

by Julián Riobó

Children have everything to learn. Kids need to be educated with certain values and manners which will help them become civilised human beings as they grow up. As a kid myself, I thought that everything that would make me laugh was correct, even if that meant another person’s shame or worse, pain. Did not all of us rejoice at someone else falling onto the floor at least once because we thought it was funny? I will leave that to your conscience.

Having said that, there are many ways of educating children, and stories written for them can always come in handy. Not only do they provide a kid with entertainment, but also with some didactic elements which, in some cases, prove amazingly interesting for them. Many didactic texts show children how and why to follow adult rules. These texts operate under the premise that rules are for the child's own good. These rules need to be explicitly stated so as not to confuse children. Down the Road, a children’s story by Celia Berridge, might constitute a clear instance of this.

The little girl and her mum, the most important characters in the story, go for a walk down the road. The infant is visiting a friend and on her way all her adventure begins. She leaves her house, gets on her pram and learns a lot of new things about the world in which she lives. Simple rules which are new for her are shown in the story. “The red light tells the cars to stop. Our light turns green. Now we can cross safely”. Children, after reading the story, may associate this with real life next time they see the light turning green on the traffic lights. Moreover, their reaction might even be deduced as they would probably say something like: “Mummy, the light is green. We can cross. Like in the story!”

If we look up the word didactic in the dictionary, one of the definitions will probably read: intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure and entertainment. Undoubtedly, Down the Road, does honour to that definition of the word. The inquisitive little girl points her pudgy finger at everything she sees looking for an explanation. She spots dustmen, men fixing and paving the roads and a fire engine and its siren sounding. She learns that each of them plays a different role in society. The fine drawings do not fail to show what these people are doing, making it even easier for a child to picture them performing their actions.

It can be stated that, Down the Road, might very well be included as an example of what it is didactic and amusing for a child. As mentioned before, this type of stories can be extremely useful for children to start acquiring some basic knowledge of the world that surrounds them. Simple rules that are for their own good are explained pleasantly, which is the right thing to do when it comes to addressing children.