When it comes to a bit of controversy, I can't keep my mouth shut ...LOL!!
I've scanned the papers, online, during the past few days... everything educational usually jumps out at me! No more than it has this week!
There was a brilliant debate in The Daily Telegraph about illiteracy in our schools and I joined in with that and read the comments with great interest....however...
It gets so much better! ;-)
You've no doubt read it too.
The gist of it is this: a parent from Somerset is not happy that teachers at his daughter's school are using, 'The Simpsons' in their Media Studies.
Now then...he has managed to persuade 400 others to
sign a petition...(which thankfully, the governors have rejected!)
Personally, I think that this narrow minded man needs to go back to school himself! LOL ;-)
(He was probably the same person who said, years ago, that Enid Blyton should not be read by children! But that's for another debate and maybe, another time!)
I do believe that a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing!
And so I pose these questions:
Did this man spend hours reading through the Media Studies curriculum?
Does he grasp ALL that it involves?
Did he then impart his new found knowledge to the 400 'sheep/followers' ? (who appear to have no minds of their own!)
Did they then all sit down and discuss thoroughly the Media Studies curriculum and how 'The Simpsons' fit into this, before putting their names to the petition?
Do they all realise that Media Studies is a relatively new and important subject in this day and age...and that ignorance is a dangerous thing?
Did they consider that taught well, (with the inclusion of 'The Simpsons'), it is motivating, captivating and teaches children to think widely about many issues?
Did they not see that ' The Simpsons' is just a tool,
one of many, being used to teach this wonderful subject?
I would suggest that the next time this person decides to set up a petition, he thinks twice about it or at least does some thorough groundwork!
******
The Simpsons might not be everyone's cup of tea but it is an excellent resource for this particular subject and it has its place alongside Shakespeare.
Shock horror!
Yes, that may well horrify some but I would say that Shakespeare can be the most boring
thing ever, at times. ( But it has its place! )
And so I say a big thumbs down to this man because as I said at the start...a little knowledge...
Not only that, forgetting 'The Simpsons' bit just for a moment, the parent refers to the children as 'kids' and that is ONE BIG PET HATE of mine!! ;-)
But ... a huge thumbs up to him too because the subject has promoted some excellent discussion and debate.
And that can only be a good thing!
Hmmm now where would 'The Simpsons' fit into the Music Curriculum, I wonder...!!
;-)
Excellent Sal- A wonderful way to Start the day. "Kids " is a pet hate of mine too and for that matter Mike hated it as well.
ReplyDeleteSome of the brightest children I know, children of some friends of ours were raised on Beano and could pass a Docterate on the subject.
Referring to children as kids is one of my pet hates too. A kid is a young goat isn't it? !!
ReplyDeleteLOVED your punchline and accompanying picture!
ReplyDeleteI learned more about history through dramatic interpretation than I ever did from the teacher who thought his job was done by just standing in front of the class reciting from a book.
ReplyDeleteAn educational film staring Donald Duck taught me the moves of Chess.
This man seems to have had a knee-jerk reaction. I'd like to have read his arguements. xx
I Hate children referred to as kids! Its my pet hate too. Kids are young goats and my boys never looked like goats.
ReplyDeleteJulie xxxxxxx
Another one here who doesn't like children referred to as kids - it always grates when I hear it. I grew up reading Enid Blyton and the Beano as well as classics like What Katy Did, Little Women, Secret Garden, Wind in the Willows etc I think those stories got me into reading and I'm still an avid reader now:)
ReplyDeleteGood grief, it's not like these children are watching TV non stop in class, I love the idea of mixed media in teaching and agree The Simpsons is great, it has so many grown up themes that young people can relate to and deals really sensitively with issues too.
ReplyDeleteOh, just spotted 'Wor Alan' in your sidebar too, I had my photo taken with him many years ago, I LOVE him!
I too hate children referred to as kids, and I'm glad you have mentioned this, Sal. I also agree with every word you have said. I'd like to know if the chap in question has read the plays of Shakespeare for if simply read and not acted, and by expert actors at that, Shakespears can be boring. We must not lose sight, too, that Will wrote the plays not for children to read and discuss in school 400 years after they were written, but for adults in his own era.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would like to correct you on one small point: it's not a little knowledge that is a dangerous thing, but a little learning. I can remember my English teacher saying this often.
I believe children should be given the widest reange of reading material possible. then, eventually, they will be able to sort the excellent reading wheat from the tacky reading chaff. And by that I don't mean that The Simpsons are tacky chaff.
Margaret P
Given the state of education today, I would think that any teaching aid that held children's attention was a good thing!! Shakespeare is incomprehensible to many people without explanatory notes ..... at least 'the kids' can 'relate' to the Simpsons. My History teacher simply dictated notes to us ..... the same notes that he had dictated to my sister four years before, then dictated to my brother four years later .....
ReplyDeletewhoops I have refered to children as kids many times....infact it's my email address! Sorry :(
ReplyDeleteWe often hark back to the golden days of Education, the 1950s and 1960s but very often the books we studied at Grammar School were the ones for which there were sufficient copies to "go round." We studied David Copperfield and The Mayor of Casterbridge, and both put me off Dickens and Hardy - these books were not, I repeat NOT, written for children! And then, come O-level English, we studied The Trumpet Major. Totally incomprehensible to me, so I listened in class to what others said about the book, and then, come the exam, parroted what had been discussed! Did I pass? You bet I did. Without having read a word of the text! I still don't like Hardy, far too verbose, and a little Dickens - like jazz - goes a very long way with me (although I love TV adaptations of Dickens, but I still dislike Hardy.)
ReplyDeleteMargaret P
Arrr yes, the joy of ignorant parents is something Mr Darling (head of English and MEDIA STUDIES at one of the top secondary schools ...blah blah)knows all about! He uses The Simpsons and plenty of other films/programmes this parent would find horrifying. Its so often (I find) the state of parents today rather than the classic line of 'the state of education today' but thats another rant!!
ReplyDelete