TV and Self-Regulation
Heather Woodward
I have been following the discussion regarding TV watching. I will admit that I have always been a little leary of the self-regulation with media... however, I had an experience with my 6ds today that I thought I would share.
I rented Huck Finn(The Disney version). I went out to the kitchen shortly after the scene where the slaves are beaten and Huck cries when he finds out that Jim has been beaten as well. Chase followed me out to the kitchen and said that he didn't want to watch this anymore because it made him sad - and he didn't like how the people were treating the "black" people. This opened up a very real conversation about slavery - and his little eyes opened wide and I think it took a bit of convincing on my part to reassure him that this was in fact the case with slaves in the early beginning of our country. We also live near Gettysburg, PA and had visited there about a month ago. He was able to piece together the reason (or one of them) for the Civil War and make the connection.
One of the things that I noticed while in Williamsburg last year was that they have people portray the circumstances they would have been in. At the restaurant, they had a young black boy carrying out garbage etc.( in costume) To the adults, it made us blatantly aware of how it must have felt to be a person of color and live in that time - and yet to the kids, this was just another person working. Now it seems a bit more real to Chase as to what they had to go through.
What I do find amazing is how clearly the kids see something like slavery as appalling - so much so that he didn't watch the rest of the movie because it bothered him. It was a lightbulb moment for me... He certainly self-regulated - and my daughter who is 10 and has read the book watched the rest...and thought is "sad but good"
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I rented Huck Finn(The Disney version). I went out to the kitchen shortly after the scene where the slaves are beaten and Huck cries when he finds out that Jim has been beaten as well. Chase followed me out to the kitchen and said that he didn't want to watch this anymore because it made him sad - and he didn't like how the people were treating the "black" people. This opened up a very real conversation about slavery - and his little eyes opened wide and I think it took a bit of convincing on my part to reassure him that this was in fact the case with slaves in the early beginning of our country. We also live near Gettysburg, PA and had visited there about a month ago. He was able to piece together the reason (or one of them) for the Civil War and make the connection.
One of the things that I noticed while in Williamsburg last year was that they have people portray the circumstances they would have been in. At the restaurant, they had a young black boy carrying out garbage etc.( in costume) To the adults, it made us blatantly aware of how it must have felt to be a person of color and live in that time - and yet to the kids, this was just another person working. Now it seems a bit more real to Chase as to what they had to go through.
What I do find amazing is how clearly the kids see something like slavery as appalling - so much so that he didn't watch the rest of the movie because it bothered him. It was a lightbulb moment for me... He certainly self-regulated - and my daughter who is 10 and has read the book watched the rest...and thought is "sad but good"
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
debbie gubernick
I visited Williamsburg when I was 13 (1972) with a youth group. I grew up on Long Island, in an integrated neighborhood. Our group stopped for lunch at some large cafeteria at the entrance to the park, and while we were there, I noticed that ALL of the employees in the cafeteria doing work like bussing, cleaning, serving, were black. I had never
seen something like that before, and that is the strongest memory I have from that trip.
Debbie
Heather Woodward <bacwoodz@...> wrote:
One of the things that I noticed while in Williamsburg last year was that they have people portray the circumstances they would have been in. At the restaurant, they had a young black boy carrying out garbage etc.( in costume) To the adults, it made us blatantly aware of how it must have felt to be a person of color and live in that time - and yet to the kids, this was just another person working.
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
seen something like that before, and that is the strongest memory I have from that trip.
Debbie
Heather Woodward <bacwoodz@...> wrote:
One of the things that I noticed while in Williamsburg last year was that they have people portray the circumstances they would have been in. At the restaurant, they had a young black boy carrying out garbage etc.( in costume) To the adults, it made us blatantly aware of how it must have felt to be a person of color and live in that time - and yet to the kids, this was just another person working.
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]