Thinking about Violence
Most moms who come around to tell more experienced moms about how terrible "violence" is haven't even tried to define that term in their own minds. They will say a cartoon is "violent," or a TV show is "violent." Their children are probably sitting safely on a warm couch in a house with a locked door.
Think about violence, and try to think open-mindedly and read some of this:
Peaceful Kids with Toy Guns (Sandra Dodd and many images of people's happy, smiling children) skip straight to the bottom of that page first
TV and violence and such (Joyce Fetteroll)
Does TV Cause Violence? (Deb Lewis) 
Me, quoting a mom, and responding:
-=-Since the gaming began there's been a lot more talking among my kids (a boy and a girl of 5) about "killing" "shooting"and so on. I dont' like that very much-=-
Have they killed anything?
Have they asked for real guns?
Children are much better at knowing fantasy from reality than some moms are.
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"I better get back to tasering that gnome. I mean upgrading the taser... in that gnome...server" Strongbad and the effect of firewalls on people's imaginations, or something.
A: When the video ends, after Strongbad talks about playing Tetris in the men's room, click the word "work."
If A, then If not A then why are you still reading? Why even come to these pages if you're not going to cooperate? Go and taser those gnomes. It's for the sake of science, philosophy, and better parenting. Testimony of a gnome-tasering mother: Dude I got 10000 and my mouse wasn't even warming up. Then the carpal tunnel thing said takabreaka. How I felt: I was laughing the whole time. ~Katherine |
Dylan never had to endure bullying because I didn't make him go to school. No fighting. He still learned how to stand up for what he believes. And he's been able to do so without the systematic pummeling of sworn enemies. Our family doesn't place any glory or value on suffering. We avoid it as much as possible. And we are so skilled at avoidance of suffering, we haven't had to punch anyone yet.When he was eleven or twelve his Karate instructor wanted the class to play a game where students would make two lines and one student would run down the middle. The lines of students were to try to whack the running student on the ass with their belts. Dylan refused to play and when the instructor asked him why he told him it was disrespectful to his fellow students and to his dojo, uniform and belt. The kids in his class who went to public school relished the idea of taking a whack at someone. People who feel powerless will grab some power where they can.
Deb Lewis
Shaming a kid who wants to sit on the couch with a remote control, or somehow preventing him from playing, is closer to violence than a kid causing the character he's controlling to shoot an imaginary weapon at some pixels.
"Bo, could you do me a couple of pieces of kid-art? In the style of an 8th grader doodling in a notebook, could you do me something like a knife dripping blood (color on the blood would be cool, especially if it looked like it had been colored with a colored pencil or a red-ink pen!) and maybe a tank firing?Bo outdid my expectations with all kinds of boy-doodles. Females in the viewership who had no brothers or sons might not appreciate this as much as male-related folk, but I hope they stir some memories and awareness in all who come by this page."If only I had saved some art from when I taught Jr. High English!!! It was everywhere in those rooms."
