Misty Felner

Joyce wrote:
TV is not a demon. It's just another medium. It's another window to
the world, more akin, in fact, to the internet and the library than
to a book.

I agree t.v. is not a demon, however in writing an article for local
magazines about the increasing number of TVs in local restaurants and
requesting that local owners do away with them or turn them off unless
otherwise requested I've uncovered a lot of research from around the world
regarding television watching. What sticks out most is that when you watch
television the brain waves in your brain switch the wave that is the
meditation/sleep wave. For this reason, especially at my daughter's age I
feel it appropriate for me to monitor the amount of TV viewing she does.
Let me remind you I do not claim to be a RU, so I'm sure there are those of
you who will disagree with my "interference". But, just like the mother who
censors what her son watches so he doesn't get nightmares I'm doing what I
feel is best for my daughter.

This is the same way I feel about the question of me not allowing my
daughter to partake of some foods. I "censor" what my daughter eats.
Diabetes is very prevalent in my family and my daughter and I both have
about a 75% chance of getting it, me in the next 10 yrs, her by the age of
20-30. I have a aunt who is blind and dying from the disease. So I'm
taking measures now to help develop healthy eating habits in all of our
family. My DH has a cholesterol, and yes there was a time when he asked for
steak and I told him no, not until is cholesterol is lowered. For me it's
less about freedom and more about health/nutrition.

My answer to the question about coffee. Yes, I've heard there are benefits
to drinking it, as with red wine, but I wouldn't start giving my child a
glass of wine every night for dinner or coffee every morning. Nutritionally
(these post have made me realize I should be using the word nutritious
rather than healthy)I don't think there's much if any value in either,
especially when you add the amount of sugar in a vanilla latte.


Misty

Pampered Chef Michelle

On 4/17/06, Misty Felner <misty@...> wrote:
>
>
> I agree t.v. is not a demon, however in writing an article for local
> magazines about the increasing number of TVs in local restaurants and
> requesting that local owners do away with them or turn them off unless
> otherwise requested I've uncovered a lot of research from around the world
> regarding television watching. What sticks out most is that when you
> watch
> television the brain waves in your brain switch the wave that is the
> meditation/sleep wave. For this reason, especially at my daughter's age I
> feel it appropriate for me to monitor the amount of TV viewing she does.


That's because the majority of people who watch television are not truly
engaged in this activity. Did you know that people who knit also switch to
a meditative/sleep wave pattern? People who do repetitive activities also
will do this. Also, how truly engaged were these people in watching tv or
were they watching it because it was there? What about the difference
between a person who was watching a rerun of Law and Order and someone who
was watching something that truly interested them such as a sporting event,
action movie, documentary, news or a new episode of a favorite program?

If someone is truly unschooled and have unlimited access to television then
television will become just another tool to engage with. When limited it
becomes something coveted. I've watched my daughter's friend who is
traditionally schooled with lots of limitations put on her come to our house
and want to spend the entire weekend watching tv or playing video games. My
daughter is saying, "Come on let's go do something" or "Would you like to
walk down to the park?" and her friend totally zoned out in front of the
tv. She thinks my kids are so lucky that they can watch tv anytime that
they want! To her tv is a limited commodity and when she does get to watch
it she watches all she can.

Oh and I knit while I watch tv, so I must be nearly catatonic :)





--
Michelle
Independent Kitchen Consultant #413652
The Pampered Chef
850-474-0817
http://www.pamperedchef.biz/michellelr
Ask me how you can save 60% on some of our most favorite products!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Joyce Fetteroll

On Apr 17, 2006, at 1:55 PM, Misty Felner wrote:

> What sticks out most is that when you watch
> television the brain waves in your brain switch the wave that is the
> meditation/sleep wave. For this reason, especially at my
> daughter's age I
> feel it appropriate for me to monitor the amount of TV viewing she
> does.

Before I get into that, what do you fear will happen if she watches
more TV than you would allow her to?

Why does that frighten you?

What evidence in unschooled children have you seen that supports what
you fear?

Here's something I wrote a while ago when someone brought up the
meditation/sleep wave "research":

++++++++
http://home.earthlink.net/~fetteroll/rejoycing/influencing%20kid%
20behavior/tv%20and%20video%20games/argumentsagainsttv.html

> And, actually a study was done that shows that some children, a
> limited number, do not think while "zoning" in front of the boob
> tube. Some children actually go into an almost sleep/dream state, a
> sort of self-hypnosis in which they brain waves patterns indicate
> no active thought patterns.
Can you site a source for this? I can't seem to find one. What I did
find (over and over and over) is a quote from "Battle for Your Mind:
Subliminal Programming": by Dick Sutphen:
>> Recent tests by researcher Herbert Krugman showed that, while
>> viewers were watching TV, right-brain activity outnumbered left-
>> brain activity by a ratio of two to one. Put more simply, the
>> viewers were in an altered state . . . in trance more often than
>> not. They were getting their Beta-endorphin "fix."
>>
>> To measure attention spans, psychophysiologist Thomas Mulholland
>> of the Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts, attached young
>> viewers to an EEG machine that was wired to shut the TV set off
>> whenever the children's brains produced a majority of alpha waves.
>> Although the children were told to concentrate, only a few could
>> keep the set on for more than 30 seconds!

Left brain activity (according to an anatomy and physiology text) is
associated with spoken and written language, numerical and scientific
skills and reasoning. Right brain activity is associated with musical
and artistic awareness, space and pattern perception, insight,
imagination, generating mental images to compare spatial
relationships. (No connection is made between right brained
activities and being in a trance like state.)

From that list, it makes sense to me that TV watching would be a
right brained activity. I suppose if there's something inherently
wrong with right brained activities, we should stop kids from drawing
and imagining and being insightful.

The text says that alpha waves are present in the EEGs of nearly all
normal individuals when they are awake and resting with their eyes
closed. These waves disappear entirely during sleep. Beta waves
generally appear when the nervous system is active, that is, during
periods of sensory input and mental activity. (Note that it says
generally.)

(Just as an interesting factoid, it says delta waves occur during
deep sleep but they are also normal in an awake infant.)

Another site says alpha waves are brought out by closing the eyes and
by relaxation, and abolished by eye opening or alerting by any
mechanism (thinking, calculating). Alpha waves are the major rhythm
seen in normal relaxed adults - it is present during most of life
especially beyond the thirteenth year when it dominates the resting
tracing. (Alpha waves are also present during meditation and
hypnosis.) And that beta waves are the dominant rhythm in patients
who are alert or anxious or who have their eyes open.

That would suggest people aren't thinking when they watch TV. But
does that make sense? I could list off a huge number of things that
I've learned from watching TV. How can learning take place without
thinking? There is also research into Controlling Computers With
Neural Signals (in Scientific American) which uses Alpha and Mu
waves. If alpha waves stop when thought happens, how could those
waves be used to perform a computer action if we have to stop
thinking in order to generate them?

What it really means is that people enjoy dabbling in pseudo-science.
They are using faulty logic -- hypnosis may generate alpha but that
doesn't mean alpha indicates hypnosis, thinking may generate beta but
that doesn't mean that beta indicates thinking (or that lack of beta
means lack of thinking) -- to draw a conclusion to fit their theory.

To get a more complete picture we need to know what the waves look
like when we're deeply involved in a novel. Or watching a play. Or
playing a video game. Or watching a sporting event. Or painting. Or
gazing down at a sleeping or nursing infant. (Not that it would
indicate anything. It would just be more data on how the brain
operates.) If alpha waves increased during those times, should we
stop those things? Or does it merely mean that "thinking stops alpha
waves" and "beta is present during mental activity" are too
simplistic and don't adequately describe what's going on?

++++++
> I "censor" what my daughter eats.

A coworker had an adult son with juvenile diabetes. She too felt his
eating habits and behavior were her responsibility until he showed he
could be trusted. And because he fought against the control he never
showed he could be trusted. He was an adult when she told me of his
self destructive behavior but she still felt she needed to save him
from himself. (Which I think *is* a perfectly natural need!)

This was long before I read about trusting kids but even I could see
that he was self-destructing not because he was stupid but because
his mother had never trusted him to be intelligent enough not to want
to die.

> Diabetes is very prevalent in my family and my daughter and I both
> have
> about a 75% chance of getting it

Family history of diabetes and alcoholism, food allergies are all
realities of some kids' lives. If we trust them, children can
understand the consequences of the choices they have.

Trust doesn't mean letting them learn entirely through
experimentation. We can give them information. When death is not
imminent, we can help them experiment and learn what their own bodies
are capable of.

> Yes, I've heard there are benefits
> to drinking it, as with red wine, but I wouldn't start giving my
> child a
> glass of wine every night for dinner or coffee every morning.

No one said give your child coffee because it's healthy. Someone was
questioning the statement that coffee is bad for you.

The principle is to be our children's partner as they explore the
world. A sip of coffee or a sip of alcohol won't hurt a kid. Even, as
many people pointed out, nothing bad has come from kids who had
coffee somewhat regularly.

> especially when you add the amount of sugar in a vanilla latte.

What do you fear will happen if your child drinks the amount of sugar
in a vanilla latte?

Have you asked how radical unschoolers handle children with special
dietary needs?

Joyce

Manisha Kher

--- Misty Felner <misty@...> wrote:

>
> My answer to the question about coffee. Yes, I've
> heard there are benefits
> to drinking it, as with red wine, but I wouldn't
> start giving my child a
> glass of wine every night for dinner or coffee every
> morning.
>
Whoa! You made a big leap there from not denying a sip
when a child asks for it to offering it your child. No
one has suggested that you offer non-nutritious stuff
to your kid. The issue is what do you do when your kid
asks for it.

Manisha



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Pampered Chef Michelle

>
> > Diabetes is very prevalent in my family and my daughter and I both
> > have
> > about a 75% chance of getting it


I meant to comment on this earlier and forgot. My co-parent is diabetic.
Because of Keon's eating issues (for those that may not have read recent
past posts on this Keon falls into the autistic spectrum and has difficulty
with many issues including food) Dan was concerned that he, too, would end
up diabetic. My maternal grandfather was also diabetic. We too had heard
75% thrown at us. Dan talked to his doctor and what she said is that
someone having a 75% chance of getting something is grossly misworded. The
way that it should be worded is that a person who has a family history of
diabetes has a 75% higher chance of developing diabetes than someone with NO
family history of diabetes and that it is very rare to find someone who has
NO history of diabetes. She said also to consider what type of diabetes it
is and when it developed in a person. Was the diabetes juvenile or
something that was an issue in a healthy fit adult or did the diabetes
develop when the adult was in his late 30's or later and was a result of
improper eating. The reason that we see family histories of late-onset
diabetes has more to do with diet than genetics. Fat adults mostly have fat
children not because of genetics but because of the type of diet that they
subject their children to. The children develop diabetes not because of
genetics but because of lifestyle

So how does unschooling play in all this? Simple, children when allowed to
set their own eating patterns may indulge at first, but eventually will
balance out because they learn what feels good when they eat and what feels
not so good. Sure watermelon tastes good but if you eat half a watermelon
(or even a 2" ring of watermelon) you will get a tummy ache and that doesn't
feel good. So the next time they may have only a quarter of a watermelon
(or 1/2 of a 2" ring.) Maybe chocolate cake tastes great, but if you eat
half a chocolate cake while your mouth may be happy your body isn't. They
learn to distinguish those things without an adult telling them what to
eat. It may surprise you to know that even though our house has quite a bit
of "junk food" in it, my kids are just as apt to grab a piece of fruit or
cheese or a slice of bread as they are chips, cookies or candy.





--
Michelle
Independent Kitchen Consultant #413652
The Pampered Chef
850-474-0817
http://www.pamperedchef.biz/michellelr
Ask me how you can save 60% on some of our most favorite products!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]