I have read some interesting things about child-rearing in our culture lately. UNICEF is not usually a group I associate with family-centered values, however there is an interesting story here regarding a study they did about the adverse effects of daycare for the next generation. They say in part:
The report observes that "most children in the developed world are spending their earliest years in some form of care outside the home.” According to the organization, “80 per cent of children aged three to six are in some form of early childhood education and care outside the home,” and “about one in four under the age of three are also cared for outside the home — with the proportion rising to one in two in some countries.”
The report concludes that, "To the extent that this change is unplanned and unmonitored, it could also be described as a high-stakes gamble with today’s children and tomorrow’s world."
Another fascinating, but rather disturbibg study is the Immersion Project. I wonder what we are doing to this generation of children by assuming that nothing they watch or do or consume will affect them as adults. If that were true, many billions of dollars on advertising are wasted each year. Al Mohler has an interesting article about media immersion in our children here, quoting a recent NIH study. As parents and grandparents, we need to ask ourselves some important questions about how our children spend their time, and how involved we are with them.
And how about a few things just for fun? Test your European geography knowledge at this fun site sponsored by Lufthansa Airlines. And enjoy this long commercial for JCPenney.
5 comments:
Chris,
20 years ago we had many young people being raised on video games and that hasn't changed. It has always been worrisome and it still is as I hear of young men dropping out of college because they can't stop gaming.
But lately as I watch Facebook and blogging and see so many children being broadcast to the world, including my own broadcasting of my own dear little grandson, I wonder what this sort of attention is going to do to this generation of children. When I went to upload the video of my grandson on You Tube and used his name with the word baby their were already thousands of uploaded videos of babies with that name. Of course, I did is so my mother could see him and my friends and none of that is bad in itself, it is just that I wonder about it.
Cindy- I wonder about these sorts of things as well. We pretty much kept our kids from video games, except in high school during the summers. ANd yet, when they get together, the boys LOVE to play games on the computer. And it is almost like addictive behavior. I don't understand why other parents don't see that.
But what to do about it?
Chris, I love that Lufthansa geography game. I also entered a contest to win 2 round trip first class tickets to Germany. One of these days I might actually win one of these contests. LOL
Video games...makes me think of Postman's book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. It is a sad state of affairs. No wonder so many kids have attention problems...yes, I am a mean mom, no video systems over here. Alas, they love computer games and we have to monitor it closely!
Lorri- I'm pretty sure I got that Lufthansa site from you :-)
And yes- reminds me of Postman's book. I think Postman was a keen observer of the problem, without ay answers :-(
Although we certainly watch our share of family movies, we rarely allow our kids to watch live television and we don't have video games. When I do see live television, I'm amazed. I think that when you step away from media immersion, you start to notice the effects more--the way it stifles creativity, promotes false philosophies, and hinders the imagination (in children). (I say step away because before we had children, we were pretty well immersed.) I especially notice how marketing controls what children are "into." We've been fortunate to take a different path and our kids are into things that they discover in literature or history, for the most part.
Our oldest are only eight, however, so I'm well aware that we haven't really faced this issue. I find that so far if there is any desire in our kids for video games and television it is only because they feel left out of whatever their friends might be doing.
And yes, I think it is a bit addictive, and I have to admit that blogging can be a bit like that too...at least for me.
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