10.10.09
Allegedly Educational
From Dora to Barney, Teletubbies to Bob the Builder, or Sesame Street to Little Einsteins, and many others unmentioned, I am blown away by all the TV shows and books for children that have sprouted like mushrooms overnight! Pre-schoolers and even 11-year-old children are amongst those that are catered with this sort of media, and yet we do not bite our nails over this matter because these are supposedly educational and are much safer than other forms of entertainment anyway - and they are our children’s main babysitters. I am 24 years old. I do not have kids, but I worry.
In my daily life, I encounter different types of kids. This allows me to observe children – especially their extraordinary potentials. Most kids nowadays are smarter than I remember, compared to those during my time. There is no end to my amazement with these brilliant little people. However, despite their intelligence, despite formula milk’s brain enhancers and other programs for advancement, I feel that something is missing in their growth, or moreover, that something is hampering their capabilities. (Never mind the educational system for now. Let us reserve volumes for that. Let this simple blog be about the little things we can do outside the academe.)
Scrutinize a child, any child, and take note of his potentials. Notice how the greater part of these potentials are not being channeled towards accomplishments but are instead clouded by these so-called educational inputs that are so easily available to them even though they are capable of imbibing more mature influences that suit their intelligence, which is, by the way, more absorbent to learning than those of adults.
My brothers and I read at the age of 3, thanks to our mom’s magic technique. Since we did not have many children’s books and a television set as kids, my older brother already read the whole Bible by age 7. I was always the lesser reader (I preferred running off to the fields to collect flowers) therefore I can tell that as a child, I was not as smart as these kids I’m observing today. And here we are, instead of encouraging them to produce outputs of their remarkable intelligence, we provide them with more programs that are apparently much too elementary for such bright minds.
Does it not break your heart to see 11-year-old children in front of a television watching kiddie shows, or reading puerile books that are stunting great possibilities? Dear parents, it would be very wise to weigh whether entertainment is taking the place of cultivation. There must be a limit. Keep in mind that we are talking about little people whose reasoning are beyond their years; who are capable of writing the most interesting essays, and marking the profoundest observations. I am certainly not suggesting the mass production of Pascals, but are we willing to submit these precious minds to the world of “educational” entertainment until they eventually lose track of their marvelous potentials?
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mm said,
October 10, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Where were you when I was growing up?!!
+
I didn’t watch TV until I was in high school, and I don’t think I miss much. We were busy going through farms looking for a priced spider for our afternoon spider-fights, and or fishing, rafting or climbing trees.
My wife on the other hand was and is a bookworm. She didn’t watch much TV either, but she did have piano, dance, craft and “proper etiquette” lessons. I was amazed to find out however, quite recently, that she doesn’t know how to play “rock, paper & scissors,”.
Miracle ♪♫ said,
October 11, 2009 at 6:18 am
Hi, Sir! =)
Speaking of fishing, I sat down to jot something about fishing and ended up with this! Strange how the mind works.
Activities of yesteryears are indeed more educational than those that are labeled such nowadays. Regarding your wife, even through the pictures in your site I can tell how refined she is… I guess she didn’t miss anything either by not learning “rock, paper & scissors.” You and your wife are examples of how people are raised differently but raised well nonetheless, and come to think of it, none of you never really needed all those childish shows and books and you ended up being fine and highly-educated people.
sopraninigabi said,
October 11, 2009 at 11:04 am
I agree, Meewa. We adults tend to baby children, and they suffer for it.
Have you heard of the Waldorf/ Steiner educational method? It entails, among many other things, forbidding children to watch TV and not teaching them how to read until they are 7 years old.
I’ve made up my mind that my future child will have a Montessori preschool education, where children start being taught how to read as eary as 2.5 years old :)
Congratulations to your parents for raising such remarkable children!!!
mika said,
October 11, 2009 at 5:52 pm
wow! i thought kids could only read around the age of 7! (which is why suzuki only teaches sightreading around that age). that must have been some really magic technique your mom used :)
hmm, this IS heartbreaking to think of. i must find the best education for my (future) kids!!!!!
elaine said,
October 11, 2009 at 8:44 pm
sadly, i only started to enjoy reading seriously since i was in grade 4 or 5 (10). well with watching television, children are being “fed”, so they tend to think less, while with reading, children have more activities in the brain, they need more focus when reading. when i have kids, i swear i won’t expose them to barney and the like. but to books and music playing.
Miracle ♪♫ said,
October 11, 2009 at 9:49 pm
To Gabi:
And yet another coincidence! Dunno if you’ve read my recent entry about a certain professor, Gabi, but the aforementioned professor happens to be the son of the most influential forerunners of the Waldorf/Steiner method and we met again today.
Even though I would really want my future kids to learn to read early, I personally cannot say whether I am for or against the method because this very same professor learned to read at 10 and yet finished all novels of Austen and Dostoevsky by the end of highschool. So I conclude that the important thing is not WHEN the child begins to read, but WHAT he reads when he is able to. There are those who read early and yet end up reading junk, while there are those who read much later but end up reading the essential books.
But if You teach your kids early plus lead them to the right reading materials, then how even more wonderful that would be!
I am very thankful for having such parents… they are the remarkable ones. Kids are kids, and they have the capacity to learn things that are normally deemed advanced. It’s really all up to the parents/educators.
=)
¤ ¤ ¤
To Mika:
Most kids really read at 7, Mika, and Suzuki teachers (the ones I know) are now adjusting the introduction of note-reading according to the child’s reading capacity.
Yes, it may seem too early to think about such things but it really isn’t… and we can help not just our kids, but also those who are currently in our reach. =)
¤ ¤ ¤
To Elaine:
That’s not so sad Elaine. =) But let not the word “reading” fool us either. Reading can be dumbing too depending on what the child is reading. I suppose Barney ain’t all that bad, but only up to a certain age - although I can say that a child can definitely do without him.hehe
Misha put me in an awkward light one day when I overheard another kid invite him to watch Barney over at their house, and he said, “My Ate doesn’t want me to because Barney can make you dumb.” The poor kid went away puzzled. hahaha
mika said,
October 11, 2009 at 10:39 pm
elaine: lucky you, i only got really interested in reading in 3rd year high school, and i stopped after that. but now my interest in reading has been revived by my multiply family, haha :)
mika said,
October 11, 2009 at 10:43 pm
miracle: in addition to reading, and reading only the most worthwhile and meaningful material, i guess a child would also need a good foundation so he/she will know what and what not to absorb from the books being read. one can always learn the wrong things from the best of sources. of course, what better foundation could there be than God’s word :)
Miracle ♪♫ said,
October 12, 2009 at 7:17 am
Bullseye, Mika! It was my parents’ goal to introduce us to God’s Word before anything else. We used the King James Version and you can imagine how other kids thought us so alien before, but it was surely worth it. =)
mika said,
October 12, 2009 at 6:55 pm
haha, alien? why? did you talk in the manner of the “King James Version”? haha :P i find that cool actually!
Miracle ♪♫ said,
October 13, 2009 at 8:23 am
Umm… how shall I put this forth…
i wot now that ye ought to have been a most wonderful childhood fere, for we were dearth of companions who couldst understand. wehehehe… kidding!