Monday, September 3, 2007

What are we teaching our Kids

As I get increasingly older I am often astounded at the world around me. I don't mean in a Wonderful World sense, I mean in a peculiar sense. I find peoples interpretation of what they see, hear, read, feel as ever more odd.

We let our children, ages 8-16years, watch on TV programs like Home and Away, or Die Hard 4.0 (great Movie by the way), or CSI which ever one you like, Terminator etc, all of which show death, destruction, shootings, bombings, car accidents, abuse, bullying, and all the things we tell are kids they should not do, but when it comes to love, sex (not porn), kissing, tenderness, and all things related to relationships, we shy away and do not let them see.

Why is that we would prefer to let our children watch someone get their head blown off or they kneecaps shot out, than let watch than see a woman's breast on TV.
I find it strange that this is the case.

We try and teach our children to care about each other, but all we seem to feed them is these images of horror. The games they play are generally war based or shoot 'em up, in some form or another, games blowing up or shooting people, this has to have some impact, whether it be desensitising their emotions or honing their skills for the next World War I don't know which.
I don't mean let your child watch full on sex scenes I talking about cuddles etc.... you should know the difference.

If you want to teach a dog to sit you tell it sit, you show it sit, you reward it when it sits and eventually it sits. When you tell a child sit, then show a child stand, reward them when they stand eventually they will only know stand.

In this ever increasing world of analysing, why do we constantly blame the Television programs, blame the Internet, blame the schools, teachers, the kid next door, the computer games and our kids friends, when in actual fact it is us society which allows the unbalance in the first place.
I am not calling for more censorship but I do think we need to look at what we a teaching our children and what we really want them learn.

After all when this generation grows up chances are they will become violent, take drugs, drink to much, join gangs, steal, behave badly, have tantrums at the age of 19, take people for granted, think money grows trees, must have the newest best and most expensive, be thoughtless and self absorbed if we aren't careful.

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1 comment:

Staggo"s List said...

You write:

"After all when this generation grows up chances are they will become violent, take drugs, drink to much, join gangs, steal, behave badly, have tantrums at the age of 19, take people for granted, think money grows trees, must have the newest best and most expensive, be thoughtless and self absorbed if we aren't careful."

In the US, it is here now and is well entrenched. Twenty-seven years of polarization and blaming each other, of violence and intolerance have created an atmosphere of social chaos, which is assuaged by images of unemotional sex and violence without consequences.

When I watch human interaction movies, read poetry, and stuff like this, I sometimes feel like I'm encapsulating rather than reaching out.

Well, there's still a lot of good in life, and it's worth standing up for. Bleak times have always existed.