Last night I went to a presentation by the head of the campaign for a commercial free childhood. It was both interesting and depressing. The idea is that instead of allowing our kids to learn and develop their imagination through imaginative and creative play, we are stunting their learning by teaching them to covet commerical figures.
She wasn't saying Elmo is bad. The point she made was that years ago kids got to see their favorite commercial character at most a few times a week on TV. As kids we could see Sesame Street at most 5 times a week. If we wanted to play "Sesame Street" we had to recreate it with our imaginations. Today our kids are literally bombarded with commercial characters--videos cereal boxes, toys, sheets, placemats, towels, etc-- from birth. I am probably butchering their theories, but the gist of it is that by encouraging our kids to want Elmo 24/7 we're discouraging them from using their imaginations to come up with characters, etc. And while Elmo may not be bad, it creates a pattern of behavior that is (ie. next it will be Dora, Bratz, Barbie, etc).
She also talked about how gender specific toys have become--girls are taught to be pretty and boys are taught to be violent--and how much she worries about the generation of girls growing up in America today.
A really uplifting discussion. I guess the biggest thing that I took from it is that I'm driving this bus. By that I mean that when I buy my kids Elmo hats for their birthday, or get them "Elmo soup" I'm doing exactly what I shouldn't.
Ugh. Yet another thing to worry about... good thing I didn't bring their birthday party pics with me...
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