Tom Sawyer Isle Getting The Axe !?

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by zapppop

What kills me about the proposal is the idea that children are too ignorant to know who is Huck Finn because they won't read a book, yet they'll know Jack Sparrow because they've been to the AMC Theater. I admit reading books is not my favorite hobby but even I know Huck & Becky. What does that say about the education of our children ? Are kids not getting a real education in school ? Are parents responsible for not picking up the slack ?

When I was in school (not all that long ago) Mark Twain was still taught in like seventh grade. I doubt you will run into any small child that has read Huck Finn. And no, I don't think kids are getting a real education in school. And I think that many parents try to pick up the slack, but with school days lasting seven hours and then an hour or more of homework, when is all the slack picking up going to happen? Only 15 minutes of every hour in school is spent on actual instruction, and the rest on classroom management/bathroom breaks etc., so teachers don't have a ton of time either. There is a ton wrong with schools, but I don't blame the kids for it. Or the parents, honestly. Most of them are just doing the best they can.

Originally Posted by Prudence

I "get my information" from people who work with kids and who aren't permitted to teach Tom Sawyer, in the specific, and who frequently report on a general decrease in freeform play. But it's a given that any of my sources are per se incorrect.

First of all, I don't know why you would say that it's a given that your sources are incorrect. I happen to disagree with you this time, but I certainly don't automatically discount your sources.

And I do agree that the mass marketing aimed at kids is harming their minds and imaginations. But, I think you need to go past video games and movies. Go to Target and try to find an open ended toy. It will be tough. Most toys are centered around characters, or are electronic in some way. You have to do your research now to find good toys whereas fifty years ago no one was pushing Dora (or Mickey) so hard on kids.

I just don't think that kids have changed much. I think they aren't being provided with enough oppportunities or stimulation, but I hardly think it's a "kids these days" issue. Or a "parents these days" issue. I think on the whole it's a lot tougher to be a parent in the age of technology. Marketing is everywhere. We don't watch TV with commercials or play with characters or wear them on our cloths, but even with all those things the marketing aimed at kids is impossible to avoid.

I definitely think someone should be attacked for this, but I think it should be Hasbro and Mattel and not the mom and dad who you see with a kid with a gameboy. Chances are they both work and perhaps don't have the time or the means to research better options. Or it may be that the kid has been at home reading classics all day and he just happens to be playing a video game now.

And I don't really care if they make it Pirate Island, but I hope they do it in a general way and not movie themed.