Nanci Kuykendall

>If your kids are asking about going to school, I
>think it's fair to give them the facts of what goes
>on there (you sort of have to, as they have Barney
>and those of their friends who don't yet hate school
>and possibly your relatives or others praising it).

Rant Warning!

Not just Barney! There are a lot more than Barney
touting school in the popular media. It's a massive
concerted effort to get kids to think School is Cool
(in fact, that is a campaign name too.) As far as
kid's shows. there is Arthur and Franklin, where much
of the action takes place in or around school.

There are also the ads, both on tv, and in print,
showing happy children in schools, usually involved in
social activities (talking and laughing in the halls,
sitting around outside, eating casually around a bench
or picnic table, that kind of thing.) They are
usually back to school wardrobe or school supplies
ads.

I get just nauseated by this huge effort maintained
(like the Adult consipracy of Xanth) to try and
convince children that School is fun! School is a
wonderful place where you want to be! School is
neato-keen and full of lively and interesting
activity! They expect children to be brainwashed to
the degree that they don't even believe what their own
senses are telling them about school, or kids think
there must be some thing wrong with them to not see
and feel the way everyone else does about school.

(Sitting down on top of my soapbox and muttering
heatedly...)

Nanci K.

Pam Hartley

There are some great exceptions. The Wild Thornberrys are homeschooled.
There is a MAGNIFICENT episode of Little Bear (the TV cartoon, I don't know
if this scene ever played out in Minarik's books) where Lucy and Little Bear
set up a school for a bunch of otters, with hilarious results and Lucy and
Little Bear sensibly blame the classroom, not the otters. Otters are
apparently the original unschoolers. <g>

It makes "sense" (and I use the term lightly only because I can't think of a
better one <g>) to have pro-school programming on TV if you're on the other
side of the fence: those propagandist shows comfort both children and
parents who are school-bound (cold comfort, as most of them will discover
soon enough, but comfort none-the-less).

Pam
----------
From: Nanci Kuykendall <aisliin@...>
To: [email protected]
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] Speaking of Brainwashing
Date: Tue, Oct 1, 2002, 10:03 AM


>If your kids are asking about going to school, I
>think it's fair to give them the facts of what goes
>on there (you sort of have to, as they have Barney
>and those of their friends who don't yet hate school
>and possibly your relatives or others praising it).

Rant Warning!

Not just Barney! There are a lot more than Barney
touting school in the popular media. It's a massive
concerted effort to get kids to think School is Cool
(in fact, that is a campaign name too.) As far as
kid's shows. there is Arthur and Franklin, where much
of the action takes place in or around school.


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

[email protected]

In a message dated 10/1/02 12:05:05 PM Central Daylight Time,
aisliin@... writes:


> I get just nauseated by this huge effort maintained
> (like the Adult consipracy of Xanth) to try and
> convince children that School is fun! School is a
> wonderful place where you want to be! School is
> neato-keen and full of lively and interesting
> activity! They expect children to be brainwashed to
> the degree that they don't even believe what their own
> senses are telling them about school, or kids think
> there must be some thing wrong with them to not see
> and feel the way everyone else does about school.
>
> (Sitting down on top of my soapbox and muttering
> heatedly...)
>
> Nanci K.

ITA! All those adds on TV all those corporations getting rich off of a 30
second spot showing millions of kids that getting on the shiny yellow bus is
fun! All the school supply stuff is all jazzed up, preteen girls in what I
call Brittany clothes, pulling the kids in to make them and their parents buy
buy buy! And the movies glamorize school too. All the pretty campuses with
teens having lunch on the commons. All this and Barney too! ~*Go to school*~
~*School is fun*~ ~*you will be beautiful and popular*~ "We're a great big
happy fam-A-lee!" riiiggghht!

~another Nancy annoyed by school culture


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

Nancy Wooton

on 10/1/02 10:03 AM, Nanci Kuykendall at aisliin@... wrote:

> Not just Barney! There are a lot more than Barney
> touting school in the popular media. It's a massive
> concerted effort to get kids to think School is Cool
> (in fact, that is a campaign name too.) As far as
> kid's shows. there is Arthur and Franklin, where much
> of the action takes place in or around school.

Then there's The Simpsons, Cow and Chicken, Dexter's Lab, Southpark, Recess,
Sponge Bob Squarepants and other snarky cable cartoons (but those are for
the Already Jaded Students, who KNOW what school is like; they're beyond
brainwashing).

Nancy, one of the Great Unwashed.

Jocelyn Vilter

Don't forget Malcolm in the Middle for a good dose of anti-school comedy.

Jocelyn


>
> Rant Warning!
>
> Not just Barney! There are a lot more than Barney
> touting school in the popular media. It's a massive
> concerted effort to get kids to think School is Cool
> (in fact, that is a campaign name too.) As far as
> kid's shows. there is Arthur and Franklin, where much
> of the action takes place in or around school.

Nancy Wooton

on 10/1/02 5:39 PM, Jocelyn Vilter at jocelyn@... wrote:

> Don't forget Malcolm in the Middle for a good dose of anti-school comedy.

Krelboin!

<g> Nancy

Jocelyn Vilter

Is that how you spell it??? And do you know WHY they're Krelboins? Was
that their teachers name (the pregnant one) - or does it have something to
do with the name of the school or what?

needing the facts,
Jocelyn

> From: Nancy Wooton <ikonstitcher@...>
> Reply-To: [email protected]
> Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 18:05:40 -0700
> To: <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] Speaking of Brainwashing
>
> on 10/1/02 5:39 PM, Jocelyn Vilter at jocelyn@... wrote:
>
>> Don't forget Malcolm in the Middle for a good dose of anti-school comedy.
>
> Krelboin!
>
> <g> Nancy
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> [email protected]
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>

Nancy Wooton

on 10/1/02 6:08 PM, Jocelyn Vilter at jocelyn@... wrote:

> Is that how you spell it??? And do you know WHY they're Krelboins? Was
> that their teachers name (the pregnant one) - or does it have something to
> do with the name of the school or what?

I don't recall. <g> Not that I didn't just spend 15 minutes trying to
Google the answers!!

I have to make dinner now...

Nancy