How Many DU Parents are out there PUSHING for Better Quality Entertainment

[KoKo]

REAL Environmental Documentaries? WHY AREN'T YOU PUSHING for the at least "attempt" at the QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT you GREW UP ON? Remember "ABC After School Specials" and all the rest? Have you even noticed there's so much LESS for your kids...Do you feel "Nickelodeon" and "Animal Planet" is BETTER than what you grew up with? If so...How?

I see them as ENVIROTAINMENT....:shrug: But, maybe I'm wrong?

I know...you are both working two jobs...you are doing DU Alerts to TRY TO TAKE BACK AMERICA...but why aren't you talking with your fellow PARENTS to get better Environmental Programming?

How do you Cope? Are there Environmental Video Games? Do you buy old National Geographic Specials for your kids from Santa or WHAT?

How do you COPE? And do you remember that when YOU GREW UP there was BETTER? Or...do you think TODAY's Programming is BETTER than what YOU grew up with?

Maybe I'm really trashing you all ...you might have resources I don't know about...so PLEASE ...tell me. I'm worried about a whole generation who know NOTHING BUT BUSH IGNORANCE...and it's freaking me out....:shrug:

[madeline_con]

1. Old stuff looks old to kids...

My 10 year old likes certain preteen stuff, and some of it's great, some not so great. That's just kid's shows.

He still gets lots of info from Mom and Dad, instead of TV.

Dad loves fishing and the outdoors, so the little guy gets lots of real, practical info about the local environs.

I tell him how stoopid the politicos and evangelicals are. He's well-rounded. :hi:

[KoKo]

11. "Old Stuff Looks Old!" Yeah...I know what you say..........

:D Kids are really discrimating as to what they know and want to watch!

Weren't we ALL...gotta give it to them for their "Radar."

[KoKo]

2. Actually I don't think the younger gens are all that naive:

From DU'er Poster :"toymachines" (Moved from Enviro Forum)

(NOTE: This Poster replied to this post before I moved it to this Forum.}

With the internet especially younger generations are seeing straight through the Bush bullshit. Not all of them of course, but a good amount. The question is if they will act on it, or if apathy will settle in for good? Thats one I don't know. I think were all a little scared.

Shame and Skandal cant even be free in our own land. the wicked man turn it into battleground The Blog of Shame

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. I think you are wrong

I'm a teacher. My kids read Ranger Rick, Spider, Cricket, Nat. Geo World. They all watch the History Channel and Animal planet. The Croc Hunter and that other American crazy guy alone are worth it. And ER Vet. Awesome shows.

Personally, we have Dish TV and get the National Geographic Channel and my grandson, who is 2, loves it. He is learning animal names and behaviors.

And then there is the Internet, primary sources, etc. Environmental video games? Oregon Trail... Carmen Sandiago.. plenty of them. (not completely environmental but educational)

Personally I think the after school specials were sappy and not realistic.

Noggin is an awesome channel for toddlers without one commercial. Seseme Street still rocks.

And I won't even go into the DVD's available for sale and in the libraries.

TV isn't perfect, but it is sure a lot better than when my kids were little.

[KoKo]

6. Thanks for this "Awesome Post!" IOW...you say there's MORE Available

than years ago? And, that parents are buying stuff to teach their kids about the Environment and Abuse of it...that we couldn't have imagined?

That's a great, hopeful post. Thanks!

I just wonder though...how many parents can participate in all of this? What if they just can't afford Cable or to buy the stuff that's necessary? :shrug:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

12. You can drive through the poorest neighborhoods here in

Tallahassee and see satellite dishes on every other house.

Plus in the schools we hit environmental issues hard. We make a big deal of earth day and teach ecology, etc. MY student scold ME if I throw paper in the regular trash can. They totally are INTO the environment.

I forgot to mention the multitude of story books and chapter books with environmental themes. Also, museum stores, which are in malls and attached to lots of libraries are all about environmental issues. And zoos and aquariums, which are in most big cities, push it as well. Sadlly, I went to the N.Orleans aquarium and zoo a few weeks before Katrina. The aquarium specimens all died, with one or two exceptions.

Here in Tallahassee we have a natural museum that not only hosts class trips but also sends out "treasure chests" of natural history information to the schools. We have two animal rescue centers with a huge outreach program, festivals, etc.

I think that children have plenty of resources and are vitally interested in this area. I have an old Richard Attenborough (sp?) series I show all the time and my kids watch it with their mouths open.

[SmokingJacket]

21. Yeah, crazily enough, I think our kids will be better informed

than we were. And more liberal.

The Freepers are RIGHT to be afraid! Future generations will be way more enlightened... the RWers are just a freakshow/atavistic error...

[TallahasseeGrannie]

22. The right wing

today is an anomaly in my opinion. Probably a reaction to the craziness in the 60's and 70's.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. I agree. PBS is still great plus you have Noggin and a few decent

shows on other channels. There's plenty out there to keep kids stimulated and help them learn.

[SmokingJacket]

4. A lot of us have given up on TeeVee...

I don't let my kids watch it. I would love for it to be better, but talk about fighting a losing battle.

We do videos, though. There are some great environmental videos/movies: my boys loved that movie about migrating birds, and they've watched Schoolhouse rock (though they didn't like it as much as I did... but maybe I didn't like it at the time so much, either). They get the National Geographic kids magazine and devour it.

And you might be surprised, but schools are quite a bit more into environmentalism than they were when I was a kid. Both my sons are MUCH more concerned about global warming, extinctions, the health of wilderness than I ever was. And it's not just their parents, either.

I'm WAY less worried about my kids than I am about my peers.

[KoKo]

7. Thanks for sharing what you are doing with your kids......

It's good to hear tips from fellow DU'ers as to what they doing to "counteract" the dark side.

There is so much available today for parents "who care."

[cynatnite]

5. Well, there is more than just TV...

There is nothing less healthy than having a kid hooked on TV. Nobody gets TV here until after 6pm. After chores, homework and dinner...then they can do TV.

One thing I really like about my kids is that about half the time they wind up watching some pretty educational stuff without me having to say a word. My 6 year old boy loves bug documentaries and the weather channnel(go figure). He'll also watch sharks and lions. He does enjoy Spongebob and Jimmy Neutron.

My middle daughter watches dolphins, horses, some history channel if it's a figure she's interested in. She's a sophomore in high school and it wasn't until last year I found out she didn't know a thing about MLK. Fixed that and he turned into a hero of hers. She's also really big on Native American history.

Just because there is a load of crap on TV doesn't mean most kids sit and watch.

[KoKo]

8. More "sophisticated kids" They can Pick and Choose? Good for them!

and heartening.. thanks!

[fishnfla]

9. We just push the "off" button

I don't know if this is politically correct, but I taught our kids cards and we play poker instead (the 8 year-old, the lil' son of ----, is the luckiest card player I've ever seen) We listen to music and spend more time with physical activities (warm weather helps that) If we watch sports on TV, the sound is off.

[KoKo]

10. How do you deal with the "Scanty Girlie/Viaga" Commercials, though?

The "Visuals." Do you worry about that? Even though the "sound" is OFF?

[rumpel]

13. I am.

Unfortunately, I think certain specialized cable & satellite programming is not going to substitute good programming for the majority of the audience, who only receive their regular Network channels. Disney, who owns quite a few of those, are laden with ads, which to me only looks like a marketing channel with occasional content. (Aside form the fact that they are often labeled "The Evil Empire")

As all of these channels are controlled by the mega conglomerates it is only going to get worse. As you know the Networks are resisting the requirements of kid's programming hours to be spread evenly throughout the week. They circumvented the language of xx number of hours per week and concentrate all kids programming on Saturday.

It is more lucrative to have mindless off the wall material of shock value. Way back in the late 60's I wrote a book report in school about the effects mass media, "The Dumbing Down of The Masses". Brittney Spears & the successful marketing campaign. created just that. Just last night my daughter wanted to watch "American Idol" the audition phase. I watched it for the first time and may I just respectfully say is this what advertisers pay for? Then you have parents throwing $250,000 Bar Mitzvahs or birthday parties for their 15 and 16 year olds (I think I saw that featured on CNN). The craze of this make believe world which was originally marketed to the audience is now playing out in real life. So, the cycle is complete and it just keeps on feeding each other. (Consumerism, glamour and glitz)

Not many kids are interested in the subject of environment in form of television entertainment, nor anything perceived as "learning". Only good content and really creative minds can create programming that can merge the elements and make it feasible. But the corporate execs have to answer on ratings and have to translate that to dollars. In the last, especially 15 years, older experienced content creators were replaced by young fresh creators and writers, which in itself is not bad at all. It does get bad when it is not balanced. When one concept makes money, everyone rushes to bring something similar.

The difficulty parents always had is kids are naturally interested in "stuff" that is rather edgy or inappropriate, what changed is that there is so much more access to information, more "stuff", that all kids have, do and watch. Do you forbid TV, do you want your child be the outcast or do you homeschool? No one size fits all.

As for the environment I think kids today are far better informed than most kids 30 years ago were. That is due to public opinion, some good leaders in government, grassroots organizations and teachers. Most cities recycle, which did not exist 30 years ago, children do connect the reason with the action.

Other issues I am afraid are not doing so well, exactly as you point out - entertainment content - is 80% plain awful.

However, the mega corporations gobbled up all well to do independent production companies, so everything is now under this or the other corporate umbrella. Independent production houses have a chance of maybe 1 in gazillion.
The corporations are only interested in the bottom line.

The entire society has to fundamentally realize what we are doing, including those who provide content. Public pressure is good place to start, however supporting good content and their funding sources (investors/advertisers) versus complaining on bad content is definitely a must, and something we can all do.

I work in the industry

[rumpel]

16. After my posting, I realize you are talking about very young children?

The younger children under 12 are quite easier I think.
The problem with 12-17 year olds or so is a big one I think.

[Jacobin]

15. How bout reading some fucking books, fer cryin out loud?

why does anyone encourage their children to stifle their imaginations by being force fed sound and animation to make the whole story?

I encourage my children to stay away from animitronic devices as much as possible. Books are actually a very good way to entertain and educate. No. Really. They are.

[rumpel]

18. It also expands their own creativity. Agree. Have to start early though.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

25. Personally I don't expose my children

to fucking books.



hehehehe...sorry, couldn't resist

[TallahasseeGrannie]

26. Now a real answer (my last was a joke..sorry)

we all learn in different ways. Some learn visually, some aurally, some through movement. Some even through smell and touch.

Kids need a wide range of options. Books are great. However, if you are dyslexic, DVDs are even better.

Also, when you are teaching about, say, the rain forest. Your aim is not imagination. It is to show what it looks like, the animals, etc. The written word is not nearly as effective as pictures.

And, this is a graphics-wise generation. They expect pictures and a lot of them. They're cool with words like in Harry Potter when the pictures are okay in your head.

[Fenris]

17. I have it on good authority...

That violence/sex/foul language/blasphemey allows parents more time to themselves!

Trust me! My authority has only lost one of her children while they played in traffic with naked strangers.

:hide:

[dolo amber]

19. I didn't *lose* her, I frankly didn't want her back after that

:yoiks:

[Deja Q]

20. I'd push for more interaction between people, dump the electronic toys

:shrug:

[porphyrian]

27. Falling Down is a great fucking movie. - n/t

[The Whiskey Priest]

23. I think that the kids should be as entertaining as possible

Some kids are just endowed with the ability to entertain...so we shouldnt push them to do more than they can in order to entertain us.

[porphyrian]

24. After School Specials weren't good.

They were unrealistic, melodramatic and stupid. They were exploitation flicks capitalizing on the current event of the day, like teen pregnancy. If you remember them as something better, it's due to the passage of time and/or your age when they aired.

TV programming has always been 99% commercial shit. There is just more of it to wade through now than before to find the good 1%. The problem isn't with TV, but with it being used to parent children. The same goes for video games.

It is also wrong to assume that what someone is exposed to the most hours in the day is what they will learn. How many new things do you learn at work? If there are any, how do they shape your feelings about the environment or government? One good 30 minute family conversation does far more to shape a child than an entire day of television.

Entertainment is entertainment. Education is education. While entertainment can be educational and education can be entertaining, they aren't the same thing. Forcing entertainment to be educational doesn't work because people stop paying for it, and the owners stop producing it. Instead of trying to reform television and video games, why not insist that our public schools get adequately funded to do the job they're supposed to? It would be effort better spent.

[Moosepoop]

28. Schoolhouse Rock rocked!

I thought that series was dead and forgotten, but apparently it lives.
My sister and I were taking a trip down memory lane the other night, and we started singing the lyrics to old Schoolhouse Rock episodes. My daughter and nephew, in middle school and high school, respectively, joined right in and knew the words to "Conjuction Junction, What's Your Function?" and "I'm Just a Bill", among others. I was amazed that kids their ages were still learning from these productions. They're shown in school now, apparently. I remember them from Saturday morning cartoons.