Video games, academic pressures
contribute to rise in behavioral problems
Some had warned that already. But this is the 1st time UK acedemics
put this in paper and writings. They even gone as far as warning
the gov on this matter. I certainly take this report very seriously
and with great concern after comparing with my personnal
observations.
Pop-cultures and video games do not belong to childhood
ages.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14798692/
Updated: 11:36 a.m. ET Sept. 12, 2006
LONDON - Britains children are being poisoned by a junk culture
of processed food, computer games and over-competitive education,
an influential group of authors and experts warned on
Tuesday.
In an open letter to the Daily Telegraph, 110 teachers,
psychologists and childrens authors including the
internationally acclaimed Philip Pullman and Penelope Leach, a
leading childcare expert called on the government to act now to
prevent childhood being killed off altogether.
Forced to act and dress like mini-adults, children are becoming
increasingly depressed and experiencing growing levels of
behavioral and developmental problems, they said.
Since childrens brains are still developing, they cannot adjust
as full-grown adults can, to the effects of ever more rapid
technological and cultural change, the letter said.
They need what developing human beings have always needed,
including real food (as opposed to processed junk), real play (as
opposed to sedentary, screen-based entertainment), first hand
experience of the world they live in and regular interaction with
the real-life significant adults in their lives.
The letter was circulated by Sue Palmer, an ex-head teacher and
author of a book entitled Toxic Childhood, and Dr Richard House,
a senior lecturer at the Research Center for Therapeutic Education
at Roehampton University in London.
Childrens development is being drastically affected by the kind
of world they are brought up in, Palmer told the Daily Telegraph.
It is shocking.
A childs physical and psychological growth cannot be accelerated.
It changes in biological time, not at electrical speed. Childhood
is not a race.
The experts condemned Britains increasingly target-driven
education system and urged the government to recognize childrens
need for more time and space to develop, demanding an urgent public
debate on child-rearing in the 21st century.
Award-winning childrens author Michael Morpurgo, who also signed
the letter, said there was a drip, drip, drip effect of academic
pressure and marketing which was killing childhood.
Its gradually soaking like a poison into the culture, he told
BBC radio. There is less room for reading, for dreaming, for
music, for drama, for art, and simply for playing.