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Lines from the Library (October 2001)
By Frankie Shaw By the time they leave school, most North American children will have seen 8,000 TV murders, and over 600,000 commercials. The effect that this has on children's lives and on their imaginations is the subject of a video new on our library shelves, " Strangers in the House". I saw this documentary last night and began to understand the pressures parents face from their offspring, who have been subtly manipulated by those who make their living from the products they wish to sell. TV program producers are concerned with gathering an audience to see the advertisers. Children are studied by commercial entrepreneurs as they watch TV to see which programs they prefer. The most popular program becomes the most desirable during which to advertise, and kids soon succumb to the insatiable need to buy more and more in order to achieve gratification. They quickly learn that all problems are solvable and solvable fast, if they just buy the product advertised. No wonder then, that merchandising has become a major part of children's programming. The average child sits in front of the TV for 28 hours each week. They are now being exposed to anything and everything in the world. There is a real danger of them becoming passive consumers, divorced from reality. It was interesting to note their lack of interaction with the people around them, while watching TV. We are in danger of mortgaging the socialization of our children, and we need to teach them to be media literate, to be able to sift through all the stuff they watch, and decide for themselves whether this is their reality. We have to teach kids that they are smarter than the TV they watch. Children are not children for long. They need to hear their own stories, their own histories, to be a part of their communities. They need to experience the wonder and innocence of childhood before they become adults. If they don't have the opportunity, when they are little, to develop their own imaginations, through play and through books, rather than passively being spoon fed by TV, they will not know how to when they are adults. They need to be able to imagine a better world. New additions to our shelves; Non-Fiction. Breggin, Peter. Talking Back to Ritalin; what doctors aren't telling you about stimulants and ADHD. Chopra, Deepak. Grow Younger, Live Longer. Dellasega, Cheryl. Surviving Ophelia; mothers share their wisdom in navigating the tumultuous teenage years. Hall, Mari. Practical Reiki; healing with natural energy. Lind, Jane. Joyce Wieland, Artist on Fire. Miller, Alice. The Truth Will Set You Free.; overcoming emotional blindness and finding your true adult self. Molson, Karen. The Molsons; their life and times. Murray, Dr. Jill. But I Love Him; protecting your teenage daughter from controlling abusive dating relationships O'Neill, Hugh. Birds from Wood; making decoys and other birds. Ryan, John. Where the Wind Carries Me; the life and art of Judith Ryan. Shenk, , David. The Forgetting; Alzheimer's - portrait of an epidemic. Spenser, Margaret. Designing and Making Rocking Horses. Wiwa, Ken. In the Shadow of a Saint; a son's journey to understand his father's legacy. Fiction Bainbridge, Beryl. According to Queenie. Cook, Robin. Shock. Cookson, Catherine. Silent Lady. Courtenay, Bryce. Smokey Joe's Cafe. Coupland, Douglas. All Families are Psychotic. Cussler, Clive. Valhalla Rising. Esquival, Laura. Swift as Desire. Evans, Nicholas. The Smoke Jumper. Fielding, Joy. Grand Avenue. Findley, Timothy. Spadework. Ford, Richard. (Pulitzer prize winner) Multitude of Sins. Gerritson, Tess. The Surgeon. Hoffman, Alice. Blue Diary. Huston, Nancy. Dolce Agonia. (shortlisted for the Giller prize) King, Stephen. Black House. McEwan, Ian. Atonement. Munro, Alice. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. Paretsky, Sara. Total Recall. Perry, Anne. Funeral in Blue. Puzo, Mario. The Family. Salman, Rushdie. Fury. Schlink Bernhard. Flights of Love Sparks, Nicholas. A Bend in the Road Wiebe, Rudy. Sweeter than all the World. Encourage your child's imagination and wonder. Come to the library and explore the reality of childhood. -Frankie You can read more about the Puslinch Library by going to A Puslinch Diary. You can read previous Lines from the Library here: August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001< |