IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!

I've always liked Roald Dahl. Like any self respecting third grader, I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, though I have to say Matilda was my favorite. Matilda is about an unappreciated genius born into a family of television addicts. Much like Mike Teavee in Chocolate Factory. According to the Roald Dahl wiki, Mike is a "violence-obsessed, anger fueled television fanatic, who is seldom away from his television set." Dahl apparently had a thing against TV. When they adapted his novel "The Witches" into a motion picture, he stood outside the cinema with a megaphone, warning people not to see it. Which makes sense, because they completely screwed up the story.
A few months ago, I was browsing on poemhunter.com and found this little piece entitled simply 'Television'. This is where Dahl sums up his feelings about the ghastly machine, just in case we didn't get the message before.

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install 
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.

(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?

IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!

'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,

AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!

And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
 
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,

And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-

Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did. 

 I cherish and admire Mr. Dahl, but I can't agree with him. Opinions like his were common in recent decades.  They still are, though most moral guardians have gotten bored with the crusade against television. And they grew up watching it themselves. So they've switched to preaching the evils of the Internet. Which makes me wonder. What atrocious forms of media will I be shooing my children from in 2033? Hmm...I've never been fond of video games...but they'll probably be offering gaming scholarships by then.
I like TV. I like books. My all time favorite show is Nelvana's Redwall cartoon. Especially season three, which contains many things Dahl would've approved of. Pirates, ships, cannibals, smugglers, gypsies, queens-no whales, but the characters are nearly eaten by a large fish once. I never would've discovered the Brian Jacques books without the show.

 
So maybe they do some good after all.

Nostalgia Ain't Like It Used to Be

Behold, the all-seeing Plato.

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"
-Plato, 4th Century BC

They spend the next sixty or so generations quoting you in graduation speeches.
At least nowadays, sculptures are allowed to have eyes.

What's this, color? Sculpture ain't like it used to be.

Do We Really Need Role Models?

It seems that every time I read some article about popular culture-books, movies, TV shows, internet-I hear a lot about the 'influence' they have on a young audience.

Disney gets a lot of backlash for their heroines. Ultra thin, helium voiced princesses who fall into comas and await rescue. Oh, and they supposedly make us anorexic.
Um, sorry, but you're idiots. Anorexia is a medical condition. And what would happen if Disney made a chubby princess? Anybody else remember the Cookie Monster controversy?

And it doesn't stop there, of course. Take Katniss.

A twelve year old girl is selected to kill other teenagers. Her older sister volunteers in her place, because death is bad. And they're trying to kill her, which worries Katniss, because death is bad. Then her friend gets eliminated from the game and Katniss cries. Because death is bad. Then she nearly has to kill a boy she cares for, which is a very stressful experience, death is bad.
The conclusion?
"We can't allow our children to watch this! It's graphic! It's gory! It's gruesome! It promotes death!"
Everybody from Katniss to Hermione is supposed to be a role model. The moral guardians wonder, "What's the appeal here? What's the message? What's the inspiration? What's the moral?" Never mind that we're reading for entertainment.
Singers and actresses get caught up in this too. Supposedly, we're all Miley Cyrus clones. But this is only relevant for females. Nobody cares whether Justin Bieber is setting a good example for preteen boys. Which, by the way, he isn't.
I don't have role models. Heroes, yes. I've always admired firefighters. Navy SEALS too. And Joan of Arc, Susan B. Anthony, J.K. Rowling, George Washington, those guys aren't bad either. Just face it. The world is full of awesome people. But that doesn't mean I'm going to join the military.
I listen to Taylor Swift, but I don't care what kind of clothes or hair of paper airplane necklace she's flaunting.
Now I'm talking about role models in popular culture. Parents are an entirely different matter. You want a kid who doesn't smoke, drink, and have sex? Here's a hint. Don't smoke or drink. And have the kid in wedlock. It works. You can't complain about your kid's problems if you're doing the same stupid things. Well, you can, but then the kid can call you a hypocrite.
Here's a good rule of thumb:
If you don't want your kid to watch, read, wear, or do it-
DON'T DO IT.

We're not stupid. If we want role models, we'll look for them in the real world. That is all.

Phone Etiquette: Teens vs. Adults

Yesterday I went to see Les Miserables with my friends. It's an incredible movie. You need to see it if you haven't already. But please, parents, don't bring your children. I saw kids young as eight being lead into the theater. It's rated PG-13 for a reason. But besides that...
Gun fights! Sword fights! Unrequited love! Barricades! Escaped prisoners! Tragic death scenes! Forty nine musical numbers!
The woman sitting next to us texted through the whole thing.
If you're going to pay $6.25 you may as well watch it.
I hate people who text during movies, whether it's playing in the theater or my basement. The room's almost completely dark. Do you really think we can't see the little blue light popping up? You could at least hide it.
Any teenager knows the rules of phone etiquette. Maybe it's because we've grown up with movie theater commercials telling us to please turn off any electronic devices.
We hold our phones in our laps. If we can't do that, we hold them level with our rib cages. But not before we locate a backpack, desk, or unwitting friend to shield them from view. That's common sense in high school.
Then I see adults who like to hold them at neck level. Maybe they're trying to read the tiny words. Most phones have a zoom function, but no I understand if some people haven't figured out how to use it yet.
Leaning forward, however, is a practical skill I encourage everybody to master before reaching the age of two.


Seems like he's got it down already.

I can't be too hasty to judge here. Cell phones are a fairly recent invention. Don't say we've grown up with them. I hate that. I grew up with  TV, yes, and computer games, but I didn't see anybody send a text until I was nine. Our parents owned cell phones first and we learned by observing them. By the time we got our first phones, we had a general idea of what to do with it.
We don't need to be taught phone etiquette. We're inventing it. 

That Christmas Feeling

I saw a newspaper article today about religion in schools. Namely, should elementary schools be allowed to sing religious songs for Christmas? It got me thinking. Religion is usually a taboo in school. We study it in high school in World Religions and any AP social studies class. And of course, you have to talk about Judaism when learning about World War II. But as a personal, here and now thing, you're not supposed to bring it up. Especially if you're Christian. Never mind that 78% of America is as well.
When is was in sixth grade we had a musical program with the theme of friendship. There was one song, I can't remember the title, but it inclued the phrase 'we pray'. After a week of practicing, our teacher crossed it out and wrote 'hope' above it. I can't imagine who that would offend. All religions pray to something.
And then there was our annual Christmas program. We sang about reindeers, Santa, and giving gifts. One year we sang the dreidel song. As far as I know, nobody in our class was Jewish. But nobody minded. I know we sang 'Do You See What I See?' one year. The whole thing's about the nativity. I thought it was strange that we'd be allowed to sing about religion in school, but I never heard anybody complain.
My mother lived in Iran for a year as a child. She went to an American school, where they got days off for both Christmas and Ramadan, and learned to sing 'Silent Night' in Farsi.
There are plenty of people who don't have a religion. Lots of them celebrate Christmas anyways just so they can exchange gifts. And then there are atheists. Poor atheists. They have no holidays.
You can debate about it all you want, but no matter how commercialized and popularized it becomes, Christmas will always be a religious holiday.

"It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself."
-Charles Dickens

 

We Are Awesome

Normally I try to avoid talking about my personal life. Honestly, it's not that interesting. But now it's time to brag.
This is my school.

We get really into the idea of Christmas spirit. It's more of an obsession, really. Every year we pick a charity. And by pick, I mean they send us applications. We've raised about $800,000 since we opened in 1999.
This year's cause, as you can tell from the top, was the Haley Bell Blessed Chair Foundation. We've spent the last eighteen days doing absolutely everything we could to raise money. We went door to door doing odd jobs. Collin Raye flew out from Nashville to do a benefit concert. Two boys had people sponsor their marathon through a foot of snow.
The grand total: $125,084.13.
Well, we call it Silver Rush for a reason. This from 2,000 high school students in a little over two weeks.
We. Are. Awesome.
That's all.

Times Change, Minds Change

I was doing some homework for my history class tonight when I came across this little tidbit:
In 1833, children under the age of nine were forbidden from working in underground mines. Workdays for children between the ages of nine and thirteen were limited to nine hours a day.
My thought process went something like this:
1. Underground mines? Are there any other kind?
2. Nine? That's Weston's age!
3. Wait a second, I've read this before.
Back in fourth grade, I did my History Fair project on child labor laws. It was the most intense research project I'd done up to that point. I read through books and articles and looked at pictures like these:

Miners on break.

Miners at work. They were my age.

                                    Now I'm this age.

I was ten, reading about ten year olds working in mines. And it didn't really affect me. I was greatful I didn't have to live like that, of course. But it was a specific problem belonging to that kid in that picture. I'd think, "That's horrible for them." Not, "That's horrible. How could they do that to little kids?"
At age ten, I would read this and think of people. Now I'm sixteen and think of my little brother.
Of course, there is still child labor going on in the world. And child massacres, child slavery, and child abuse, and child prostitution, earthquakes that injure children...the list marches on. There have always been problems in the world. There are no good old days. There is no tragic past to shadow the bright future. It's all life and life marches on.
When we get older, the rift between 'us' and 'them' gets wider. We don't see them quite as people anymore. Every new story of the horrors inflicted on children cuts us, more so than the daily stream of murders and car bombings we see on TV each day. We pity them and want to reach out.
But we loose that understanding of what exactly it's like to be young.
So many people think children are unaffected. That when a tragedy happens, they'll be sitting on the couch, staring blankly at the screen as they ask their parents questions. Why did somebody do that? How could this happen?
But aren't adults asking the same questions?
The truth is, children have a unique capacity to view everyone equally. Hearing about kids getting shot in a Connecticut school feels the same as adults shot at a movie theater in Colorado.
And don't they get the same answers?
I don't know, sweetie. I just don't know.