The wood pile, corn fields, and pastures on my grandparents farm were the places for creative play and therapeutic recreation during my childhood. This freedom fostered adventures and innovation among the children in my family. We were content with the great outdoors, making mud pies, and running after the livestock for fun. Today our youth find enjoyment in sedentary activities like playing video games or surfing the Internet, while spending hours at a time sitting. Our kids are threaten by poor health like obesity. Children today lack appropriate social skills. Technology has become a blessing and a curse in our society. Cell phones, play station 3, the Wii, iPods, and other gadgets have taken our children from social playgrounds that are enforced by creativity to web-cams and text messages. Where do the children play? They play on MySpace and utube.com, and in other sedentary locations.
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5 comments:
I agree that the simple childhood of the past has been tarnished by so much electronic entertainment. However, I think the parents have a lot of control in the process. For many of the electronic gadgets, if parents did not buy them the children would not be able to use them. We as parents should be more attentive to needs versus wants. Perhaps the 78 questions could be used in deciding if something is good for our children.
I,too,agree that techonlogy is neutral.
Reading this took me back to my childhood in rural Charleston, SC. As an adult, I long for those days of running and jumping. I think we as parents need to model the behavior in which we want our children to follow. If we are active, then they will be active
James,
I agree that the elements of the simplier life have all give way to high tech and a lot of hype. It is difficult to get children to focus because they are so wired due to the influences of technology. To teach, you almost always have to have a dog and pony show or clearly defined expectations and the ability to refocus the students! What happened to the days of good old mud pies?
Sheila
Thanks for leaving your feedback about "Where do the children play?" Your comments were insightful and inspirational. Look for more hot topics to come soon.
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