Learn Your ABCs

When Martin Price ran for Springfield Elementary School's class presidency, he promised to bing students the ABCs "Asimov, Bester, Clarke." Prince is a character on the Simpsons, of course. He's the fourth-grade brain, Bart's nemesis and Lisa's rival. And like most nerds, he loves science fiction. Many brilliant people are fans of the genre, such as Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, yet it gets short shrift among literary teachers. They insist on kids reading works based on ancient superstitions or somebody's feelings rather than facts. Science fiction breeds scientific thinking. Maybe we'd be better off with kids reading Asimov, Bester, Clarke and Ray Bradbury, with whom Martin is familiar.