Pam Hartley

> Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 05:59:13 -0800
> From: Joel Hawthorne <jhawthorne@...>
>Subject: Re: Little Bear
>
>There's lots of time to come to grips with evil...but the shallow, cartoon,
>television fictional evil seems a lousy introduction. I think kids should be
>spared gratuitous evil and violence as much as possible. Television gives a
>grotesquely distorted view of reality. The more television people watch the
>less accurate view of reality they have.

That last sentence needs some qualifiers.

It may certainly be true for people who accept "television reality" as "real
reality" (I can't believe I just created that abysmal phrase <g>) but
watching television doesn't create people with distorted reality, any more
than reading fantasy novels or Winnie the Pooh leads to such.

Pam, finally on digest and able to keep up. ;)

[email protected]

In a message dated 11/8/99 1:24:21 PM, [email protected] writes:

<<An uncomfortable sort of, "Oh! You're teaching him to be sensative! Well

I suppose it's allright at this age, but he'll be too old for that sort of

thing soon. And you don't want to encourage that sort of un-masculine

behavior too long...."


It really sickens me, and was the last straw for me with that previous

group. I mean, why should boys be treated differently simply by virtue of

the fact that they are boys?>>

I'd be tempted to ask that person >>Gee, what age do you think insensitivity
training should start?<<

The book _The Courage to Raise Good Men_, by Sivertstein?, has a lot of good
material on the topic of our weird cultural ideas about cutting our sons off
from affection lest we spoil them.

Betsy

Joel Hawthorne

I was actually referring to the studies of people estimating their "risks" of a
variety of dangers. There was a direct relationship between how much T.V. people
watched and how accurate they were in estimating their risks. Of course not all
people, at all times but broadly over a number of people.

Probably as pernicious and destructive to our collective well-being is the "junk
food" news and "educational" programs which rearrange our sense of what is
important in the rest of the world. Making the sensational seem really important
and the everyday seem less important.

A good example of this is the Columbine tragedy which got enormous air play and
the reality that 9 children die daily from gunfire in the US is muted and hardly
mentioned at all. If it served someone's money making agenda we would have the
"daily dead children report". Rape is another example. A shockingly common crime
which is glossed over mostly. If it got the coverage that it really deserves
there would be the daily sexual assault index for every community. It would be a
social issue like drunk driving has become finally after years of unacknowledged
(by most people) carnage.



Pam Hartley wrote:

> From: "Pam Hartley" <pamhartley@...>
>
> > Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 05:59:13 -0800
> > From: Joel Hawthorne <jhawthorne@...>
> >Subject: Re: Little Bear
> >
> >There's lots of time to come to grips with evil...but the shallow, cartoon,
> >television fictional evil seems a lousy introduction. I think kids should be
> >spared gratuitous evil and violence as much as possible. Television gives a
> >grotesquely distorted view of reality. The more television people watch the
> >less accurate view of reality they have.
>
> That last sentence needs some qualifiers.
>
> It may certainly be true for people who accept "television reality" as "real
> reality" (I can't believe I just created that abysmal phrase <g>) but
> watching television doesn't create people with distorted reality, any more
> than reading fantasy novels or Winnie the Pooh leads to such.
>
> Pam, finally on digest and able to keep up. ;)
>
> > Check it out!
> http://www.unschooling.com

--
best wishes
Joel

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