Letter to the Editor

A5

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

My grandson was quite excited to have me see a book he had purchased at the Southern Carleton Elementary School Book Fair the other day. I enjoy reading to my grandchildren so I decided I would read the book to him while he was eating his breakfast. The book is titled Pokemon: the Coal Badge Battle. I was surprised by the content of the story.

The story has a hero who uses his pokemons to defeat adversaries. If it wasn't for the chance that I had seen my grandson engage in some unnecessary behaviour with another child, I might not have thought too much about this story book. The headbutt, push, shove behaviour in the book had been emulated in my grandson's behaviour.

These tactics, and determination to win at any cost, do not fit all that well in a child's acceptable social decorum. Some of these exciting manoeuvres could do serious physical injury to other children.

In a discussion with a school representative about the book's availability from the school's Book Fair and the contradiction a student might face between good choice behaviour versus these dangerous behaviours, I was left with the impression that bad information is pervasive in this society, and that there isn't much we can do to control that, and that individuals need good guidance to make the right decisions.

So where does that guidance come from? Should some of that guidance come from the school Book Fair selections? Certainly bizarre cartoons have replaced the innocence of the good-always-wins thinking of the ‘60 on television.

We market sex to preteens so they can appear normal to their friends and violence is more of a hallmark of manhood than ever before.

Moms and dads are not always available or equipped or have the energy to defend against such deep-seeded strategies at perverting their children.

Children probably do not understand how to differentiate between the acceptable behaviours adults in their lives try to enforce and the overwhelming variety of life-style behaviours they are exposed to. I think the ideals of children are perplexed by the hypocrisy of the world's reality. And what about children who do not have good adult direction?

In a system where reading, writing and arithmetic seem to be optional for some children, we probably should not inadvertently feed them the wrong information.

They might become the Pokemons of tomorrow.

Ron Corey,

Woodstock