When I was living in Mexico City I would often go to the Lagunilla flea market on the weekends, a massive sprawl of stands selling all kinds of knicknacks, antiques, bootlegs, clothing, and food. In one of the many book dealers’ stands there I found a large sheet of paper printed with these inane and charming “educational” cards for children. The colors are just beautiful and are of course mostly off-register. [I have re-posted the images so that if you click on them you can see a larger version.] Many of the “cards” are wonderfully surreal in their careful illustration of utterly obvious concepts. This one, for example, helpfully compares a clean child to a dirty child:
This one illustrates the difference between standing and running well and badly:
There is also a morbid streak running through these little lessons, as in this one which graphically warns children of the dangers of sticking foreign objects into their orifices and admonishes them never to play “dangerous games”:
bleeding from the face sucks. But at least you’ve learned your lesson.