My younger kids enjoyed watching “The Magic School Bus” on PBS years ago. I didn’t mind because it was mostly educational. But today’s version apparently includes scaring kids by telling them that a monster will get them if they don’t live the green lifestyle. Propaganda is alive and well in children’s programming. What a shame!
How do you feel about letting your children watch television?
I have to admit, my feelings have changed over the years. When I was a young parent, I only let my kids watch “Sesame Street” and “Mr. Rogers.” The rest of the time they played: in their rooms, in the living room, in the yard and at the park. VCRs were still new and expensive; we rented one once in a while so that we could watch a movie, and we often rented an old Disney movie for the kids. But that was the limit of our children’s television viewing. We didn’t even buy a color television until 1989; even then we bought a tiny one, hoping its size would keep the kids from becoming addicted.
Then we had more kids. I found that homeschooling the older kids was a lot easier if the little ones had a video to watch. Yes, it was on the tiny television, but it kept them glued in one spot for a while so that I didn’t have to worry too much about someone climbing up the kitchen blinds while we worked on long division in the living room. The rest of the time, however, I limited how much television the kids could watch.
By the time we got a bigger television, Continue reading
My old dentist was a pretty modern kind of guy. Along with all the latest high-tech dental equipment, he had televisions in every examining room. Unfortunately, my most traumatic dental experience occurred in one of those rooms, when I was held hostage with a mold full of goo clamped to my jaw (the mold for my new crown was being prepared) so that I was unable to beg, “Have a heart…Please change the channel!” while on the tv screen, four unbelievably dim women blathered endlessly. That was the one and only time I ever watched “The View”…..until today.
Apparently, one of the show’s resident windbags spewed off yesterday, calling homeschooled kids “demented.” I had to watch the clip before sharing it to make sure I had the right clip. I hope you appreciate my sacrifice in doing so. It was every bit as painful as watching it from the dentist’s chair.
(Scoot the time up to about 5:30 to catch the beginning of the rant.)
(Hat tips: Extraordinarily Ordinary, The Homeschool Lounge)