P*ssed off at PBS!!!! Talk about propaganda... - Page 2

[saying13]

Originally Posted by hattifattener

Hey Joel- thanks for the input! I checked back through my post, and I noticed that I said absolutely nothing negative in it about Head Start. I'm a big fan, obviously, or I wouldn't be sending my daughter. I don't hold H.S. responsible for what the PBS lady was saying.

Hi hattie,

Since I generally find most of the trainers for parent meetings, I personally feel some responsibility for the information presented. While you did not say anything negative about Head Start, and the PBS presenteer was the one that made the statement, how that information is both recieved and processed by parents who may not have been exposed to any of the research of the negative impacts of TV on a child's education is at least an indirect responsibility of Head Start staff and the parents who participate in program governance.

Originally Posted by saimeiyu

I'm sorry, I don't think telling a bunch of low-income (or any, for that matter) parents that your kid HAS to watch some TV or you're going to end up damaging your kid falls into the category of teaching parents critical thinking. That falls into the category of consumerist brainwashing, to me.

No, it doesn't. But neither does shutting out that opinion because you disagree with it, either. That's my point. Critical thinking is modeled when you expose people to various viewpoints and give them the means to critically process what it is they have been told. You don't teach critical thinking when you barr from the discussion every opinion you think is wrong. I had an ethics professor in college who seemed to take delight in destroying the worldview of the kids in the class from fundamentalist/evangelical Christian homes. Towards the end of the semester, he explained why it was so easy for him to do. It was because those kids' parents had spent so much time sheltering them from divergent views, they had no framework to deal with such information. This situation is a parallel. As a staffperson, in this case I would have asked for discussion about the information presented, and any of the major areas of good and bad information I would have re-hashed and asked some questions of the group. Hopefully, from the discussion would come some outloud attempts at critical thinking.

[goldfinch]

No, it doesn't. But neither does shutting out that opinion because you disagree with it, either. That's my point. Critical thinking is modeled when you expose people to various viewpoints and give them the means to critically process what it is they have been told. You don't teach critical thinking when you barr from the discussion every opinion you think is wrong.

But presumably there is a selection process for HS presenters, and presumably there is an agenda for 'building healthy kids' (or similar) that HS is interested in promoting. Or does every person with a product or world-view to market to children get equal time with the Head Start audience? In the interest of teaching critical thinking, of course?

In my opinion, the idea that kids must watch television to fit in with their peers is not one that Head Start should be promoting, implicitly or explicitly. I'd be interested in what kinds of critical thinking discussions were held after that presentation, and how the possible commercial agenda of PBS was explored and analyzed to help parents come to their own critically processed decisions.

[llamalluv]

Oh, my. As if "connecting" with a tv-crazed child is even possible. Or desirable.

And this from a woman who is not anti-tv.

[hattifattener]

Originally Posted by saying13

No, it doesn't. But neither does shutting out that opinion because you disagree with it, either. That's my point. Critical thinking is modeled when you expose people to various viewpoints and give them the means to critically process what it is they have been told. You don't teach critical thinking when you barr from the discussion every opinion you think is wrong.

In response to this, and to another poster who wondered what kind of critical thinking discussions were held after the presentation, (haven't yet figured out the whole double-posting thing) I should have mentioned right off the bat that I was, very literally, the lone dissenting voice at the meeting. There was no discussion, critical or otherwise, of the material after the presentation. That leads me to believe that, except for my hesitant, stuttering, and inarticulate objections, everything presented would have come off as unchallenged fact. And presenting people with something that appears to be a fact does not, in and of itself, lead to critical thinking.

And, I hate to split hairs, but you mentioned barring every opinion that you think is wrong... In this case, I don't just think it's wrong, that TV is necessary to healthy development, it plain old is wrong. Those are the facts of the case. Take Ben Franklin, for example; he was an on-the-ball guy, and he did it all without TV.

[goldfinch]

In this case, I don't just think it's wrong, that TV is necessary to healthy development, it plain old is wrong. Those are the facts of the case.

[saimeiyu]

Originally Posted by hattifattener

And, I hate to split hairs, but you mentioned barring every opinion that you think is wrong... In this case, I don't just think it's wrong, that TV is necessary to healthy development, it plain old is wrong. Those are the facts of the case. Take Ben Franklin, for example; he was an on-the-ball guy, and he did it all without TV.

No kidding!!

ALL the research shows that young kids shouldn`t be watching TV AT ALL before the age of like, what, 3 years? It sounds like that PBS representative was in no way adding any caveats to that effect. And that is just plain wrong, desire for critical thinking or no.

[MamaPam]

This reminds me of a quote I heard about MCDonalds being "a part' of a healthy diet. :

[Ruthla]

IMO, PBS saying "TV free is best but if you're going to watch TV then PBS is the best choice" is kind of like a formula company saying "Breast is Best but if you need formula our brand is the best." I wouldn't expect a formula company to claim that infant formula was REQUIRED for healthy babies, and I woudln't expect PBS to say that TV watching is REQUIRED for emotionally healthy preschoolers.

I can understand why the Head Start program is willing to work with PBS, but I still think it's irresponsible of the PBS rep to promote TV viewing in that way.