A does not stand for Apple, B does not stand for Book, C does not stand for Cat. To teach a child their ABCs was to provide them with a vocabulary that enabled them to function as a child. However, these standard ABCs are no longer enough to prepare a child for life in the North America of the 21 st century. Authority, bureaucracy and communication bring with them different connotations today than they did one hundred years earlier. They are therefore pinpointed here as the primary concepts one must be familiar with in order to adequately function within a modern set of rules. Such is the significance of authority. To be in an authoritative position is to have power and influence, but to be underneath the authoritative power is to know how to operate not against it but in tandem with it. The modern source of authority, while it should be the specific governing power of each nation, it is arguably the governing power of one specific nation, the United States of America. Bureaucracy, it must be understood, functions not for the good of the people but for individual financial gain of those in charge. Money can therefore be considered as the underlying force behind any bureaucratic system. The meaning of communication has changes to encompass computers and cyber-technology. With the change in this fundamental form of interpersonal relationships, the basis of modern relationships has also been upturned.

While the images are suppose to reference educational books for children, would anyone be willing to teach these new terms to their three year-old, discarding the traditional ABC’s? This project should be considered a proposal for a new vocabulary structure. It proposes a solution to how to educate a modern-day child. On the one hand, it acknowledges that the basis for well-functioning adults must be established at childhood, yet on the other hand it proposes to eliminate childhood for the sake of modernity.