Christensen Extended Comments

The children's book titled "No, David!" was influential to my childhood without me even knowing it.

This post features extended comments from our classmate Nick Berling's blog which can be found here: http://nberlingblog.blogspot.com/

I really like the way Nick summed up the main idea of "Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us." He mentioned how Linda Christensen argues that children are programmed very early in their childhood through literature such as books, magazines, movies, cartoons, etc, that give them opinions on different types of people and how our society works. I've been exposed to this argument in previous college courses and I must say that I agree. Honestly, I feel like the media controls everything in terms of the way we view the world. For example, the basic plot behind countless movies in America involves the male protagonist character succeeding the antagonist, thus 'saving the day.' Since we've read and seen this so many times, we now consider males in our society to be dominant and more likely to become heroes. Now, think about the lack of exposure a child's brain has, leaving them more susceptible to believe what they see or read in the media.

Nick's analysis of Sesame Street and Oscar the grouch is accurate. Showing children how a homeless character gets treated negatively can certainly give them a negative idea of the homeless in real life.

As for myself, I can name one book and one tv show that certainly influenced my worldview without even knowing it. The first one is Spongebob, a show that I'm sure everyone in this class has seen at least once or twice. Patrick is a character who's a little slower than the rest, often being ridiculed for his lack of intellectual ability. This gives gives kids an idea of how to respond when they come across a similar situation. Mr. Krabs is a cheap, greedy business owner who pays his employees very little. I can definitely see how his character can give kids the wrong idea.

Next, one of my favorite books to read in my early childhood was "No, David!" which featured the naughty acts of a young boy named David. Page by page, he did one mischievous thing to another, giving me the idea of what a "bad" kid looked like.

Point to share: It wasn't until I reached college where I made this realization about the media. Perhaps, when we enter the field of education, we teach kids about this in their earlier years.