Gaming addictions & others

[RoadRaven]

Our Kindergarten teachers are having a huge issue with their classes this year. One teacher actually had a parent say something like, "I send my kid to school. That's where they are suppose to learn. It's your job to teach them, not mine."

Maybe this is just happening in my little corner of the world. But it does scare me to think about what our future is going to be like.

Veronica

Kindergarten over here is preschool (3-4 yr olds).
And the new entrant/junior school is the equivilent of American kindergarten classes.

And its not happening only in your corner of the wolrd, V. Its about what people value as "real" learning and unfortunately that tends to be measured in literacy and numeracy tests...


Have you seen the work being done in the Italian municipality of Reggio Emilia? That approach to teaching and learning with /working alongside pre-schoolers has been adapted big-time in New Zealand (the Reggio Emilia approach) with particulalr focus on the project appraoch where preschoolers follow their own interests and agendas and teachers support them in their research and understandings. I wish parents could see how much of this they already do themselves...

And also the work of Emmi Pikler (the Loczi Orphanage in Budapest) whose ideas Magda Gerber adapted and has taken back to Ammerican parents, and now the "Pikler Approach" is making huge impacts on how teachers work with infants in early childhood centres...

If only we could get out of the social paralyisis which seems to dictate what you have seen " that real learning happens at school " and are alarmed about. I'll join you and say 'bah humbug' to that idea!

[Tri Girl]

Our Kindergarten teachers are having a huge issue with their classes this year. One teacher actually had a parent say something like, "I send my kid to school. That's where they are suppose to learn. It's your job to teach them, not mine."

Maybe this is just happening in my little corner of the world. But it does scare me to think about what our future is going to be like.

Veronica

I've had that said to me before. I almost came unglued...

And we've talked about it, but it's not just your little corner of the world. Kids are definitely much bolder than they used to be. I had a cookie on my desk one day (given to me by a child who had a birthday) and I had a student reach for it while demanding that they wanted it. I almost had to slap his little hand away (but my look was all it took). They're not comfortable, they're bold and brazen and do and say things to me that I NEVER would've had the nerve/balls to do when I was a kid. The lines of respect between adults and children have blurred to the point where children feel entitled to interact with me as if we're peers. I don't think so little ones...


And I guess I'm addicted to my laptop now. It's new, so I'm sure it'll wear off, but I spend at least a couple hours a day reading all kinds of things online. At least I'm learing, right? Right?

[snapdragen]

And well, it shouldn't be odd in the 21st century, but twice in last few weeks, I saw a parent wheeling their child around (big enough to walk, around 4-6 yrs. old) outside. Child had a minature like laptop tucked in front while inside the stroller and manoeuvring the buttons. Probably it was a game? Ok, I'm not a parent but it is strange to see this with the child's fascination but totally disinterested in his/her outside immediate surroundings. Maybe it's the new way of keeping a kid from howling in public..

Any chance this child was disabled in some way? We have a couple of different schools near my office for the disabled, lots of different wheelchairs/strollers etc.

[Irulan]

Any chance this child was disabled in some way? We have a couple of different schools near my office for the disabled, lots of different wheelchairs/strollers etc.

Nope. At least I doubt it. I was out for a ride this fall, and some folks were wheeling what must have been a healthy looking but bored looking 7 year old(ish) kid watching a DVD.

That being said, it's not all bad. I have a geek child, plays LOTs of video games but does a few other things. He is graduating this May with an Electrical Engineering degree, near the top of his class, with a very good job lined up. I'm sure his interest in games/electronics have something to do with his success.

[shootingstar]

Any chance this child was disabled in some way? We have a couple of different schools near my office for the disabled, lots of different wheelchairs/strollers etc.

It was not readily apparent to me as a pedestrian passing by the parent and kid in stroller. I know what you're asking since I did work at rehabilitation hospital for spinal cord injured adults for a few years ages ago. Beside our facility, was a pediatric rehabilitation hospital for children with various disabilties, cerebral palsy, MS, cystic fibrosis, etc. in addition to spinal cord diseases.

It appeared to me at glance, the child was at least normal in hand function and hand-eye neurolocomotor skills, because child's fingers were moving ...FAST.

I do have a pedestrian interest in this ....as a librarian. I am not a children's nor school librarian but have noticed in the professional literature for librarians, in past 2 years, a niche interest of some public librarians interested in gaming as learning strategy..for information literacy skills and secondly, as another resource to draw in more children and teenagers into the library. The reality is use statistics particularily among teenagers for using their public library, are dropping if the library director doesn't reinvent some of their services/diversify their range of resources. And use statistics affects how the library will be funded in the future.

I am not convinced when people talk about the real learning benefits of video games if those benefits can be applied to alot of video games. It would seem a video gaming software company should hire some staff who have specialized knowledge of adult and child cognitive development and learning.

By the way, the person I spoke with she has: her undergraduate university degree in Chemical Engineering. Then her visual arts degree from a public, well-known art and design college. Her first love is the latter which includes computer animation design. So she is someone equipped with strong analytical skills to write programming, etc. and visual design...but learning skills and cognitive development is probably she is picking up as she goes along if she is paying attention to this.

The companies don't care, as long as these games are truly fun...they are to make money.

There's nothing inherently wrong with some video game playing. Even if there is the occasional mildly violent video game, But for a child, it would seem for the child's long-term benefit, that they have passions/interests aside from video games and computers.

[Veronica]

I'm currently addicted to Fallout 3 - a video game.

A couple days ago I was addicted to Simple Genius.

I'm always addicted to good chocolate and pie.


Veronica

[OakLeaf]

I'm old school. I haven't been able to graduate from NetHack and Bejeweled.

[Tuckervill]

By Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote Blink and Outliers, a review of the book, Everything Bad is Good for You
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/200...0516crbo_books

Addresses the video game issue.

Karen

[sfa]

Hmm. If I had seen the same thing I would have assumed the child was autistic and using an assistive communication device.

My seven year old still rides in a stroller when we're smart enough to remember it in advance. If we don't have it, we end up carrying him, and he's getting really heavy. To anyone who doesn't know him, he appears perfectly normal and I'm sure lots of judgmental people have assumed the worst about us, but I long ago stopped caring what other people think. But he can't/won't walk long distances--low muscle tone combined with no social awareness. The social awareness is one of those things people seem to think means that people with autism are awkward socially or don't talk, but in reality it's a lot more--it means, for example, that he won't know to keep his clothes on in public and will happily strip naked when he's hot or uncomfortable, because wearing clothes is a social construct as much as it is utilitarian. And it also means that if we're going someplace that he's not internally motivated to go to, you have to physically force him to move or else he'll just stop walking when he's no longer interested and will stand perfectly still or lie down in the middle of the sidewalk or parking lot or store aisle. A stroller is just easier.

And you know, you're probably right. Chances are this kid was perfectly normal and was playing a video game. But you don't know this and you don't know what the situation was or why you saw what you saw, and I think it's a bit silly to jump to conclusions when every single person on this board was in her youth a member of a generation that an older generation despaired over. And while chances are you saw a normal if somewhat lazy kid, chances also are that he'll grow up just fine and will do well enough in school and will get a good enough job and will be happy and well adjusted and will take his son to soccer lessons and his daughter to Girl Scouts (when they're not wasting time with whatever the 30-year-in-the-future version of Nintendo is) and will whine about filling out tax forms and will watch too much football on t.v. (or whatever the 30-year-in-the-future version of t.v. is) and will, generally speaking, turn out just fine, just like every other generation that an older generation has despaired over.

Sarah

[Tuckervill]

+1, Sarah.

I carried my middle child around until he was about 7. He was unusually small and I enjoyed carrying him. At the time, I thought he was my last child, so maybe it was more for me than for him!

One little slice of time doesn't tell us much about how parents are doing with their children. Heaven knows I'd be in trouble if I were judged and found lacking during that one tantrum in the grocery store!

Karen (it was me, not the kids)

[Eden]

......... and will, generally speaking, turn out just fine, just like every other generation that an older generation has despaired over.

Sarah

I think though that the current generation is not turning out fine.... the rate of obesity especially in children is higher than ever and for the first time adult diseases such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure are showing up at alarming rates in children....

[Veronica]

I think we may be going to h@ll in a hand basket.

My comments are always based on what I see day in and day out in my classroom and school.

My class has little respect for others' property. Library books have their bar codes picked at and pulled off. Stickers on the desks to make grouping easier get picked off. Brand new books get nasty things written in them.

Things get left all over the place - very little actually gets put back where it goes.

Kids will saw at the desks with their scissors. These are 5th graders - 10 - 11 year olds.

They don't know how to be a community. This respect for the property of others isn't something I am accustomed to having to teach.

Then there is the disrepect to OTHER people...

Veronica

[Irulan]

I think though that the current generation is not turning out fine.... the rate of obesity especially in children is higher than ever and for the first time adult diseases such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure are showing up at alarming rates in children....

Having two kids of the "current generation", I will disagree. Sure there are a lot of kids out there that the media focuses on: fat, dull, self centered and glued to their playstations, but there are a lot of really great kids out there that no one pays attention to.

My sons are 19 & 22.
Their peers are getting degrees in international relations with a minor in Arabic, philosophy, bioscience, engineering and other sciences. They have heated philosophical and political debates that go on until 4 in the morning. They don't do drugs. They volunteer in the community, from Scouts to Ski Patrol and the Food Bank. They are all pulling 3.+ at their respective high schools and universities. They are interested in politics, and were thrilled to be able to vote in the most recent election.

Sure they like to play WOW for hours on end at times. But I see what these kids are doing, and I have a lot of hope.

[Veronica]

Your kids aren't the current generation Irulan. Your kids are young adults. They are the kids I taught ten years ago- widely different from today's ten year olds.

Veronica

[Irulan]

Your kids aren't the current generation Irulan. Your kids are young adults. They are the kids I taught ten years ago- widely different from today's ten year olds.

Veronica

Maybe so, maybe not. They were all pretty obnoxious ten year old.