At the park over the weekend, one kid's brother fell down, so the kid ( the elder brother), starts pointing and laughing, saying, "Mera bhai mar gaya" ( my brother died). No empathy, no going over to check if the little kid is hurt, just standing there and enjoying the 'fun'. And here are my two little misfits running to kiss anyone whom they see falling down and saying sorry even if they haven't been responsible - it's not something I've consciously taught them so how do some parents manage to stamp this natural goodness out of their kids? Sometimes I feel my kids won't be able to relate to their peers because their values and behaviour will be so out of sync!
All these kids in Chubbock's class- and it's a swish school so presumably the parents are educated/ have access to media and should be knowledgeable - have seen Race ( a thriller with fratricide as the theme), Welcome ( a movie about a gangster wanting to marry off his sister) and Hello Baby ( about 3 bachelors who wind up with someone's illegitimate baby). They regularly watch shows on Cartoon Network, which is rapidly degenarating into showing only violent Japanese cartoons, with the favourite being Ben 10 about a boy who fights aliens, throws bombs, kicks aliens down and so on. Every day they come to school and fill in Chubbocks ( who isn't allowed to watch) on what happened the previous day. On the other hand, when we went to see Horton Hears a Who, a wonderful adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book, all about tolerance and accepting differences, we were amongst the 6 people in the theatre.
I don't get it. Are people really that unaware, that illiterate about the impact of media particularly on little kids who have yet to learn to distinguish media from the real world? I recently contributed an article to a book on Media Literacy for Children and it was amazing to see the kinds of measures other countries have taken and what little we do here in India, just because media is 'independent'. In Germany and a host of European countries, ads are banned during children's programming, and they have strict guidelines on what programming is suitable for what agegroup, which parents follow. Here, I don't think anyone else besides Chubs watched Teletubbies till age 4!
The other thing I don't get is the lack of self-discipline. If the parents are so hooked into the soaps with all their negative characters and negative behaviour they should have the sense to send their kids out of the room. Or if they are dying to watch the latest movie, get a babysitter of some sort or wait for the damn DVD which will hit stores in a couple weeks anyway. How can they drag their young kids to an adult movie, sometimes a night show, even, and not expect that to have any consequences on the children's values or their health? But I know ex-colleagues and friends who have made it a 'family together' thing to sit and watch the soaps with their kids from the time the kids were under 3. What is the kid going to decode about acceptable codes of behavious, about right and wrong, about values, about anything other than wearing heavy kanjeevaram sarees all day along with hideous jewellery, tons of make-up and then sit about plotting something or other every day?
I'm planning to write and then speak with the principal of Chubbocks' school and ask them to have a workshop for parents and teachers on media literacy and the impact of media on children. The school is pretty open about this kind of stuff so hopefully they will go along. Meanwhile, I'm all set to watch a movie this weekend ( again A) and what's the bet the hall will be chockablock with li'l'uns?
Okay, rant over, am going to leave you with a picture of James Dean running away with his sister!
Don't worry, the fierce expression is just mugging for the camera - he's a real pussycat!
