ellice ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with
Reading and observations fall short when you have kids 24/7 that have not read these books, it isn't a question of whether you physically have them or just plain raise, adopt, foster them but there is a danger in those people without them telling those who do how simple it is, if one only does it right.
Absolutely. But, again, I wouldn't and haven't told anyone how simple it is to raise anything, especially children. OTOH, as members of a society, and one with public education that taxes also go to, with or without kids, we do have some obligation to care about what the growing generations get to learn, etc. If not, then it's go live an isolated life.
ellice
On Jun 5, 6:37 pm, ellice wrote:
Well, I have zero kids but I will butt into this conversation anyway since I am convinced it isn't an easy topic. I am a few weeks away from having my M.Ed. in secondary English, so I guess I have some sort of background in this stuff, especially since I will be getting some of those tax dollars to teach kids. I was raised on Sesame Street episodes with no ill effects (that I know of). However, I think everyone with kids should be a little wary of educational programming in general, even from PBS. Neil Postman has written several interesting books (right now, I am thinking of "The Death of Childhood," "Technopoly," and "Amusing Ourselves to Death") that touch on this topic. He wonders whether or not it is a good thing to repeatedly send even babies the message that education and entertainment are the same thing. From the teaching experience I have so far, I know that students expect everything that happens in my class to be enthralling in order to merit their attention. I have no problem trying to create engaging learning experiences, but sometimes I feel more like I'm trying to entertain than engage (I sometimes hum circus music to myself). I bring all of this up not because I hate TV in general or Sesame Street in particular, but because we were talking about this very issue yesterday in my graduate seminar on teaching media literacy. Of course, my solution would not be to eliminate these programs but to be careful about showing them to children, especially very young children, and especially in large amounts. My mom, a media specialist (or librarian, if you prefer) didn't let me watch TV until I was in school and even then only 30 min a day of something like Sesame Street until I was ten and began to pick my own shows (well, show, because I still only got 30 min a day). By the way, bringing these questions and issues about TV, movies, and ads to middle school students is enlightening, stimulating, and educational. They know more and care more about these things than most people think and with just a little encouragement they can think critically about media, which is the best sort of answer to this problem that I can think of. Just thinking out loud.
Johannah
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