Right now I'm on the plane to Seattle, with nothing to do… I plan to write a post and publish it when I am able to connect to the internet. I finished my Psychology review and cannot get up to ask my mom for a book or magazine because the seatbelt light is on--turbulence I think, although I haven't felt much. On the way to the airport, Stuart didn't have anything to do, and I had just finished reading "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in my book of the top 500 poems, so I read him three Lewis Caroll poems, "The Jabberwocky," "The Walrus and the Carpenter," and "You are Old, Father William" and then had him read "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear, and "The Raven" by Poe. I felt like I should help him become a bit more cultured. :)
In psych right now we're learning about learning, and I just finished reading about observational learning, so I'm going to talk a little about the disadvantages of television, NOT because I am a TV hater or condemn those who watch it, but because I think it is interesting. In Freakonomics, there was a study done about TV and violence, and it compared the violence rates of different cities as they were introduced to television. When I get home (Tuesday) I'll revise this post to explain all the controls that were in place, because I don't have Freakonomics with me. Essentially, the study compared the crime rate as television was introduced to different cities and found that in each city there was an increase in crime once the invention of the television became popular there. Those of you familiar with Bandura's Bobo doll experiment will know that observational learning could have contributed to some of this, but Freakonomics hypothesizes that perhaps (because TV shows when television was first introduced were not very violent) this occurred because children were spending time in front of the TV instead of studying, reading, or interacting socially--this could have stunted slightly their intellectual growth and made them more likely to commit crime. No one really knows why this happened, but it is an interesting little correlational study :D
I haven't written another poem yet, but I'll give you one, by one of the funniest British authors ever.
Television
Roald Dahl
The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
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