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Blame it on Bob
January 4th, 2008
cross-posted at Rational Homeschooling
**opinion alert**
On another homeschooling blog, It Coulda' Been Worse, Deedee is giving away Bob, a 'screentime controller' that 'puts parents in control of TV's, computers and video games' (from Bob's website which I'm not linking to).
Ok... first of all, aren't parents traditionally in control of whatever is in their house? I mean, parents who enjoy using control would not need Bob to help. On the other hand, it would be so easy to just let Bob handle the work of controlling the kids and just go take a bubble bath! Or read emails, write blogs, comment on other peoples' blogs... oh wait, that's screen time! Not ok!! jk
Some of the comments are very... interesting. I can't tell if people are being facetious or serious!
This has to work way better than the ole kitchen timer method which we
currently employ. It’s amazing how long they can make 30 minutes last
when I’m not looking! Count me in!
Oh please enter me and pick me! We keep looking at this and looking - I’m so tired of being the bad guy around here!
What a great substitute for my “Media Ticket Chart” which I can never remember to use!!
Hi! Please enter me. I have no backbone so it would really help!
Bob would be such a big help around here. I just love the way that sounds. someone else to blame. Bob did it.
So basically, Bob is great for spineless, forgetful, irresponsible and deceitful parents to do what the parent is not willing to do?
There is so much that can be said (and I probably will eventually say most of it) about the wonders of 'screen time' and the strange societal impulse to ban whatever is being enjoyed by the current population of children. Instead of going into all of that right now, I will leave off with a few quotes.
From Women's Leisure in England, 1920-1960:
Ada, too, said that her great interest was reading, an activity she pursued both inside and outside the house, particularly in the snatches of leisure time she found on her tram journey to work: 'I had Milton's Paradise Lost and I read it going down on the Tram. Lost to the world in Milton's Paradise, I've always read a lot. Erm, the world didn't matter, it was what I was reading that mattered.' Ivy confined her reading to the house or public library: 'But mainly in the house, I was reading. I was always in trouble for reading. 'Get your nose out of that book! Put some coal on the fire.' (laughs) 'Get your nose out of that book.' I was always in trouble for reading.' In fact she recalled the luxury of visits to the library: 'Oh it used to be so lovely, a full hour, you know, undisturbed reading.'
From an interview with children's book author Dianna Hutts Aston:
Later, when I was in junior high and my parents were divorced,
my obsession with books annoyed him a bit. With books, I could leave the
mess of divorce behind and lose myself in another world. When he’d
pick us up for weekend visits and want to take us horseback riding or ice-skating,
I’d only want to read. “Get your nose out of that book, Dianna
Lyn,” he’d say, and though it seems absurd now, we battled often
over the time I spent reading instead of doing all that “fun”
stuff he’d planned.
From Karen Young, bestselling romance author:
My mother worried that I read too much as a child. After I published my
first book, she told me she "so much regretted saying to me, 'Karen, if
you don't get your nose out of that book, you'll never amount to
anything!'"
From published author Debrah Williamson:
I was told a million times as a child, “Get your nose out of that book
and go outside and do something.” My parents didn’t understand I was doing something. Expanding my mind.
From children's author Lois Szymanski:
My dad wasn't keen on book learnin'. He often said, "Get your nose out
of that book and get some chores done," and "You'll never learn
anything from a book!" Today, I laugh when I think of how I make my
living!
That'll do for quotes for now, but there are many more where those come from (ahem, google). We tend to think we are so unique and have such new challenges in this modern world. Every generation has had things they thought were challenges; new and different leisure activities that seem worthless at the time. This generation of children has a whole new form of communication, creation, learning and entertainment that many adults' brains are just not wired to understand because they did not grow up with it. Cutting a kid off from that learning can only hinder them later in life when more and more of society is communicating in that way. 'Screen time' is not one entity that must be stopped. There are infinite things a kid (or adult) might be doing within that screen time:
playing a simple game to ease stress, playing a complex game to stimulate the mind, playing a fun game to entertain, playing a game to interact with the others playing the game (either in the same room or across the world), watching a show for easy laughs, watching a show for complex relationship and social dynamics, watching a show to learn about something interesting, watching a show for entertainment, watching a show to interact with the others watching the show, using the 'net to communicate with friends and relatives, using the 'net to create and publish something for the world at large, using the 'net to research something, using the 'net to interact with others using the 'net (in the same house or across the world), using the 'net to read the news, educate oneself, find likeminded folks
No matter which of these (or others I haven't listed) are the reasons for the 'screen time', they are legitimate human pursuits, they use the brain, they help the user learn, they provide entertainment and they should not be arbitrarily shut off by an electronic Bob!
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