I agree that there are many things TV does better than any other medium, but I have a hard time accepting that it should receive equal weight to other activities, or be accepted entirely uncritically.

Uncritically?

Keep reading, Kate. (Critically, I mean <g>.)

You do not yet have a sense of what a "thinking child" is really like.

My 13 yo, 16 yo and 19 yo and I are all sitting and watching "Arthur" right NOW. While I type.

It is just ending and it is the episode where DW, little girl, is careless with her grandmother's doll (a valuable doll from her childhood). The show just ended and my daughters are engaged in a conversation that was first about why DW was so thoughtless in the first place (how she's treated in the family, what info she was given about the doll, etc.) and second they are discussing how the adults handled it and whether it was right that, in the end, DW got to keep the repaired doll. And so on.

TV, Learning, Choices and FOOD Today Hannah (14) is cooking a gourmet meal for all of us (7 people). Yesterday she watched a cooking show (not sure which one) and then went to the TLC website and printed out the recipe. She asked me to take her to the grocery store to get the ingredients, which I did. It ended up taking a lot longer than a usual shopping expedition because neither of us knew what a few of the ingredients were. I don't cook much outside of people's favorites, as it isn't much of an interest of mine. We came home and she began following the recipe, chopping, mincing, simmering, filling the kitchen with wonderful-smelling and beautiful-looking foods. We are about to sit down to: Southeast Asian Coconut & Lemongrass Broth with Scallops and Shrimps...Watermelon Champagne and Fresh Orange Drink...with Champagne Poached Strawberries with Mascarpone for dessert. I attribute this meal to TV and our unschooling lives. And to Hannah, who did the whole thing by herself. She COULD have spent the day in front of the TV, that would have been okay too, but this is what she chose to do today with unlimited TV. And it smells reeeeeaaal good in our house right now :O) Jacki (Gold Standard) Close up of Hannah's meal Southeast Asian Coconut & Lemongrass Broth with Scallops and Shrimp

This is definitely critical thinking viewing. There is no other kind in our house. "Arthur" is a show aimed at much younger kids and is animated and deals with school issues a lot. My kids ALL watched it together just now and enjoyed it and then turned it off and talked about it a bit and now they're all off doing other things. Roya is making candles (and a big mess), Rox is getting dressed to go to a DestinationImagination team meeting, Rosie is reading a Lois Lowry book.

In my park day group, the unschooled kids with freedom of choice to watch tv really clearly have their critical thinking engaged when watching tv. They "work" to get the joke, for example, on the Simpsons. They ask questions—they make connections to other things they know. TV is a more active experience for them than other kids. I know this from listening to them talk about it.

Also, they are not necessarily the kids who watch the most tv, though. My kids watch little tv—they don't watch ANYTHING except things they really want to watch. That sounds obvious, but I think it isn't obvious to those who think that kids will be sucked in and trapped if the adults don't prevent that by setting limits.

Instead, think about helping become "thinking viewers" by watching with them, talking about the shows, and also help them learn to turn it off, not by MAKING them turn it off, but by making sure they have other things to do that are as enticing as "another" tv show.

In a way, how much tv they watch is an indicator for unschooling parents as to how well we're doing in creating a rich and stimulating environment.

Don't carry this too far—there are lots of times when watching tv IS an important part of that rich and stimulating environment, but what I mean is that if we noticed one of our children watching tv in a "glued to the tube" zombie-like mode, for hours and hours, day after day, we'd respond by examining our unschooling lives, not with the knee-jerk response of: "This is too much tv and this kid needs to have limits set for him/her."

Pam Sorooshian

In response to a new poster writing "Is there anything you could encourage your child to do other than sit and watch?":

While bouncing back and forth between Spongebob and Fairly Oddparents, my dd (5) built assorted sculptures with marshmallows and toothpicks, designed and created two different styles of backpack, drew a gazillion pictures and wrote about some of them, wrote letters to several differernt people (including Spongebob) and made her own envelopes, sorted and counted the money in her piggy-bank, made a cake, asked to try a new food, and generally bounced around the livingroom, dancing, spinning and jumping. When she finally came to bed she used the most words I've Ever heard her string together (she's not very talkative) to explain the plot of the last episode she had watched.

—Meredith (Mo 5, Ray 13)

an Emmy moment
posted on the AlwaysLearning list, 9/03

Holly wasn't watching the Emmy awards, she was reorganizing Barbieland with her friend Kristy. I was watching, though, and in the tribute to those who've passed away in the past year, three people who've figured in Holly's TV/movie-viewing life were named:

Lynne Thigpen, of Godspell and Carmen Sandiego

Michael Jeter, Mr. Noodle's brother, a naked draftee on "Hair," and Eduard Delacroix on "The Green Mile"

Mr. Rogers

I know the first two did lots more things, but those are what Holly associates them with.

Victor Garber was one of the presenters. He played Jesus in the movie of Godspell, too.

Holly wasn't watching it, but a lot of it was reminding me of Holly and all the joy, ideas, songs and discussions that have come from her interest in those programs.

At the age of eleven, Holly has had very little exposure to the idea of what is kids' stuff and what is not, and so her television and movie tastes are personal and calm. She will watch Teletubbies on the same day she might watch Stand By Me or The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She likes music, she understands The Green Mile, and she's analytical about the messages various PBS children's shows intend to present, about school or self esteem or history or math. It's fun for me to watch her watch TV.

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