Blawg Review #176 -- Fighting for Literacy
Blawg Review #176 is hosted by Legal Literacy -- click here for the Review -- on the United Nations' International Literacy Day. Literacy is worthy of far more than a single day of focus, and it turns out that the United Nations agrees. Apparently, we are halfway through the Literacy Decade (running from 2003 until 2012).
Legal Literacy's Review is full of great content, including some interesting IP-related topics. Thomas Colson at Securing Innovations (another LexBlog site) has a very interesting post (click here) on a new series of commercials by the PTO and Invent Now, among others, aimed at encouraging 8 - 11 year old boys and girls to invent. Colson is concerned that the commercials feed gender stereotypes and links to A Girl Named Pants his series of children's books that motivate young girls to overcome gender stereotypes.
I can see the stereotype concerns to a degree, but the ads that I found were pretty powerful and funny. Click here for the LA Times article Colson links to containing a video of one add -- I would love to add a suction bike to my bike collection. And to the extent that there is stereotyping, I think it is far outweighed by the potential good of the program. Having said that, I am impressed by Colson's books and vision. When my daughter is old enough, I will be reading to her about the adventures of Pants.
