PARENTS… This is a MUST READ Article… Are These Your Kids… Over-Entertained, Under-Educated, and Massively Distracted?

August 30th, 2015

Awake Goy

It is easy to statistically measure the effects of bad nutritional
consumption, knowing one out of three children in the U.S. are
considered overweight or obese. How do we calculate the effects of
an unhealthy diet of the mind? How do we measure mental nutrition? ~ Lip Louder

Today it is very popular for people to focus on the importance of what
children eat and how nutrition is important for the proper development
of their bodies. The effects of junk food are substantial in a child’s
life. Yet not enough attention is directed toward what is being fed to
the minds of our youth.

Meaningless entertainment, instead of judicious messages, dominates today.A constant barrage of nonsense influences children.

The media resorts
to cartoons that portray vomit as entertainment, books with
intentionally poor grammar about an underwear-wearing super hero, and
repugnant stories about a farting dog, highlighting and celebrating
stupidity and meaningless trivia that hold absolutely no importance in
life.

This is what many refer to as “Mind Garbage.” An immature ploy of “potty
humor” seems to have replaced witty humor. Junk food for the mind is
unquestionably accepted and often used as a distraction for children
because of parents’ busy and stressful lives.

Bored and
unmotivated children tend to desire entertainment over engagement in
learning.

In today’s Age of Information true knowledge is scarce, and
children are overwhelmed with foolish stories based on mindless material
with little or no value.

Many people are quick to repeat the familiar saying, “Reading
nonsense books is better than reading nothing at all!” This expresses
apathy towards children’s literature (take what you can get).

The more
parents and other consumers express apathetic attitudes toward
children’s books, the more publishers will publish books devoid of
thought-provoking material.

We must ask ourselves…

“What are these books teaching our children?”

Is the fact that they are reading more important than what
they are consuming psychologically?

Would you sit a child in front of a
TV and say, “What matters most is that he is attentive to what’s on the
television,”?

The focus of many popular stories today is centered on
the dishonorable character, opposed to the virtuous character. We need
to address what children are absorbing and determine its value for the
present and the future.

Many books train children to think in fallacious or illogical ways.
These books do not present problems objectively or logically. Instead,
an authority figure directs what the children think and say.

I believe
we need to encourage children to think as individuals. Children must be
made aware of the responsibilities of thinking for oneself and
exercising the right to express oneself as an individual.

The nature of mainstream media promotes absurd behavior which, in turn, becomes the social norm for children.

Instead
of children developing discipline, vocabulary, patience, curiosity, and
a sense of wonder, they are developing selfishness, greed, vanity, and
narcissism.

Children are guided towards the questions of who, what, when and where, but unfortunately they are not encouraged to focus on why and how? Schools tend to emphasize rote memorization of factual information rather than providing an intellectual challenge.

Some might argue that children are reading at earlier ages today but
the level of reading is declining…

Alarming research has shown teenagers
use fewer than 800 words a day, when according to recent surveys, they
know an average of 40,000 words. Popular books have simpler sentence
structure, fewer and shorter words, and a simpler vocabulary.

Currently there is a fad dubbed “Kiddie Lit” whereby popular classics
are rewritten with simpler language to appeal to children. This is a
blatant insult to their intelligence.

Dissecting the so-called “hard”
words does our children a disservice. We are standing witness to the
dilution of children’s literature and the subtle dumbing-down of future
generations. As a community, it is our duty to consider the implications
of watering down literature for children.

I say we become more active
and speak out as opposed to shaking our heads in the future and thinking
– We’ve lost another generation.

“Dora the Explorer” is the best example of a children’s show that
disproves the literary fallacy that certain words are too hard for
children to comprehend and verbalize.

It is accepted and celebrated in
our society that Dora, the fictional explorer, helps children develop a
Spanish vocabulary with words like cuidado, lo hicimos, las estrellas, vamonos, and la familia, but at the same time we believe English words like luminous, famished, bewilderment, and deceive are too complex for children to understand.

In truth, society expects little of youth and, in turn, provides little
care and support for them. Children today experience a sense of being
powerless, undervalued and incapable of extraordinary achievements.

Often their personal interests are overlooked as they are steered toward
the next big trend. Careful reflection is pushed to the wayside in
order to meet busy schedules.

Education should not be a laundry list of
skills to check off in boxes. Education needs to be appropriate for the
child, family, culture and community where they live. The system should
embrace critical thinking, logic, and deductive reasoning.

“We are creating a society that is over-entertained, under-educated, and
distracted,” exclaims Nathan Janes from his studio near the coast of
Lake Erie.

Janes, a writer, artist, and social critic living in Port
Clinton, Ohio, is creating a book that will enrich and expand the
vocabulary of children, encourage them to exercise reasoning, and ask
them contemplate the virtues of morality.

His book, Kingfisher and Wren,
will be a collection of verses that shares valuable knowledge for
children, and reinforces the knowledge in adults, about the tenets of
courage, perseverance, responsibility, self-discipline, honesty, and
love.

Funding opportunities for Kingfisher and Wren are currently available on Kickstarter.com.

“It is my hope that Kingfisher and Wren will become an enduring treasury of literature that everyone will enjoy.”

Janes also points out,

One of the biggest threats is today’s on-demand children’s television
programming. It’s possible children will rely on instant gratification
instead of learning at a normal pace.

When I was a child in the early
1980’s, children’s programming was available a couple hours in the
morning before school, a couple hours after school and Saturday morning.

Today, we live in a world were households have personal libraries of
DVD/Blue-ray media for the children. In addition, cable TV and satellite
run cartoons and children’s programming twenty four-seven.

With
advancements in technology, you can instantly stream cartoons shows to
your TV and hand held devices with the help of service providers, such
as Netflix, Hulu, and Redbox anytime you like.

Nathan’s observations serve as a warning. Research shows that the number
of parents choosing to read children’s bedtime stories is declining.
Stories beginning with once upon a time provided an opportunity
for parents to bond with their children.

Now reading to children before
they go to sleep is dramatically declining in popularity. Two of the
top reasons for this decline are stress and lack of time, but many
parents will admit that using the TV remote to pacify their children in
order to lull them into sleep is a much easier option.

Television viewing can discourage and replace reading because it
requires less thinking and more watching. Reading, however, plays an
important role in healthy development. Children whose families have the
TV on constantly exhibit lack of interest in reading as well lower-level
reading skills.

Studies by researcher Herbert Krugman have shown that within
thirty seconds of watching television, brain waves switch from
predominantly beta waves—indicating alert and conscious attention—to
predominantly alpha waves—indicating an unfocused, receptive lack of
attention.

While watching TV, the mind experiences what is known as “brain drain,”
the process of turning your mental state into a blank, empty
nothingness.

Researchers postulate that watching television is similar
to staring at a blank wall for several hours. By simply turning off the
television and reading, our brains enter into a beta state linked to
logical and critical thinking.

Philosophers believe philosophical enquiry can significantly improve the
quality of critical consciousness in our youth. Children need
encouragement to express their individuality.

Our first priority should
be to promote critical thinking in children. Children face the
disquieting threat of deferring what they truly believe in order to
conform to the mainstream media views.

As children grow and begin to
question the world around them, the media works to subvert this natural
inquisition, teaching them to become more passive in their behavior and
discouraging questioning.

John F. Kennedy said, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”

It is true.

Children are innocent and their minds fertile.
Through proper nurturing and supervision, their discoveries will guide
us to a brighter tomorrow.

Through adults cultivating a fertile path in
their minds, children will begin to gain knowledge, wisdom, and insight,
as opposed to idiocy and nonsense.

The groundwork for imparting good
virtues, values and morals must be created and supported or posterity
will increasingly wane.

As the Spectacled Eider from Kingfisher and Wren would say,
“Let us plant the seed of intellect so that it flourishes within
children, helping them to reach their full potential.”

See link to Nathan’s project: KingfisherAndWren.com

Source

August 28, 2015 – KnowTheLies.com