children and the media

My views on children and the internet, video games and t.v. are that children should have limited access to all these medias. Video games make children become obsessed with playing games by staring at a screen and being mesmerized for endless hours upon hours. Video games hinder children from playing with other children, eating, sleeping, and interacting in their environments. Children lose a lot of stimulation to the outside world by sitting at a video game while their minds and body sit stagnant staring and interacting with mindless video games. The internet is a good tool for children when it is used properly sometimes it becomes an answer box, type a question into it and get a quick answer, without any research, study or much reading. The internet as much as it can be a good instrument toward learning it can be a dangerous as well as tempting technology that allows children to reach out to strangers and find themselves in situations they are unprepared to deal with. Television is a very powerful technology that can mold and shape the way a child thinks and a child that sits in front of a t.v. for hours and most of the day will soak in all they see and pick up the values they are exposed to. Parents should take steps and precautions to make sure their children are monitored while they use all forms of medias, and given days and times and hours when they can play games or watch t.v. as well as what they can watch and what video games they can play.

My Best and Worst teachers

I had an algebra teacher once that got on my last nerves she was a young woman married and pregnant who had an affair with being on time because she was always on time to the minute. She ran the classroom with a little intimidation because she was a stickler for time and she counted students absent when she called rolled and they happened to be asleep or not paying attention. It was hard for me to understand the concept of algebra and as fast as she taught it and as slow as I was to learn it I hated the class and her method of teaching it.

This teacher came from a well to do family and she was here teaching at a community college with a bunch of inner city students who didn’t care much for her or her style of teaching. Any excuses offered for why you couldn’t catch onto the algebra material didn’t matter catch on or move on. I didn’t learn much from this teacher she wasn’t good at explaining concepts all I did before I dropped the class was to zoom in on her big round pregnant stomach and become fixated on her baby toe that always hung out of her sandal as she walk to the front of the class back to the blackboard that teacher made me miserable. she was one of the worst teachers I can remember having.
One of my most memorable teachers was a black studies teacher I had a few years ago. She made learning a beautiful experience this teacher made me want to do research and find out about subjects I had never had an interest in. I was introduced to going to hear speakers such as Cornell West and Mayor Ron Dellums this teacher introduced me to black history and to history in a way which peaked my interest. This teacher was bright and interesting an intellectual and a down to earth person she had a personality and manner that was intriguing and stimulating I was like a sponge I soaked up all the information she gave me and I was changed as an individual and a student.

I learned that there was more to life than the box I was living in I was taught that the world would be my classroom and experiences in life would be my greatest teacher. This teacher was a motivator a positive influence and I loved being in her classroom she had my best interests at heart and proved it to me each and everyday I was in attendance in her classroom grades were important but what was more important was that I learned something and put forth my best efforts at learning what ever material I was given and I was graded according to doing the best I was able to do after hearing lectures, watching movies and covering reading material from books, research and whatever material was covered in class this was one of the best teachers I have had.

My Top Ten Stressors

1. DRUG ABUSE
drugs and drug abuse, this is in my opinion the main component that tears a family apart. drug abuse takes a viable and loving mother or father and turns them into monsters to their children. it creates divisions in a childs life by creating a drug infested home enviornment that festers violence and neglect.

2. Money
causes stress in the home when there is very little of it and a whole lot of bills and fininical responsibilities such as rent, gas and electric, food and clothing. for a child whose family cannot meet these obligations it can be very stressful. The child will go without and feel the back lash from his family and peers for what he needs and what he does not have. the child feels embrassment and ridicule.

3. Being raised in a single family home headed by a woman, can be very stressful for a male child who really needs the guideance of a male role model such as a father. Although the mother may do the best she can a young boy needs a man in his life to learn his role as he becomes a man.

4. An unrelated Boyfriend living in the Home
A male in the home such as a boyfriend living with a childs mother can sometimes be a bad experience for children when that man has no respect, love or regard for those children and there is abuse and sexual abuse to children and the mother ignores or doesnot protect her children they can be scarred for life.

5. Violence
Violence in the home where the mother is a victim of abuse by the father and the children witness this violence and grow up with this violence they may think it is natural and repeat the violence upon their own mates and children.

6. Education
life is so hetic and just surviving is so important that a childs education is put last on many parents list of importance. the children fall through the cracks they go to school, act up won't study or can't study and know one makes them study. there is no interaction with the teacher or the school and the child fails for lack of there parents caring.

7. Working Parents
Working parents some parents have to work more than one job and they cannot afford to spend quality time with their children. to put food on the table they have to be away from home and the children suffer. they have to fend for themselves, cook for themselves and take care of younger sisters and brothers.

8. Poverty
Poverty tears families apart the neighboorhoods they must live in where there is violence and drugs, prostitution and the homeless. merely exsisting from hand to mouth can be devasting to a child whose daily lifestyle is hopelessness and not having his minimal needs meet with crime and violence meeting him when walking out his door.

9. Pressure to live above ones means or up to another's ideals
adults give into pressure also through advertisements and feeling they have to adopt a certain lifestyle. or maintain a status quo. since the adults are falling into these pressures so does the child. they will get the impression that their surroundings are never satisfactory. This could lead into peer pressure and an unhealthy desire to be excepted by ones peers. wearing clothes, hairstyles, expensive tennis shoes keeping up with the joneses so to speak. smoking dope, drinking and driving, partying and having sex these are all the pressures a child can be exposed to trying to fit in with their peers.

10. Discrimination/racism by Government, institutions, and authority figures
when families experience or believe that they are continually experiencing various forms of discrimination and or racisim they will view the authority figures as an enemy. therefore children will see stereotypical heroes such as fire fighters, police officers and educators as figures to be mistrusted or to be suspicious of. (intent)
Respect for those in authority, such as parents, teachers the law, police and each other if a child does not have respect for adults he will not have respect for any one else. he will curse be disrespectful to any one they will act out, act up and be an embrassment to their parents.

I grew up in the 60's and it was a whole lot different than it is now. In the 60's there were'nt any computers no cell phones nor i-pods. In the time I grew up in it was a time of innoncence so to speak. People seemed to care more about each other and they talked more to each other. I don't remeber the violence on the scale I now see it on. when I was young they used to call the gay men sissy's or punks. Back then you didn't see are hear about them as you do today they stayed mostly hidden in the closet. You didn't see a lot of pregnant young ladies walking the streets as proudly as they do today you didn't flaunt a pregnancy you tried to hide it. Children were more respectful to adults because if you weren't when your mama found out that adult had her blessing to half kill you. In my day you were whooped with an extension cord, a belt a switch or your mama or Dad might maul you in the head with their fist, there was no time out, there was no 911 to call ,no teacher to tell and any way you could get paddled on your behind by your teacher. What i know to be a fact is that if you even make the wrong comment to someones child the teacher, parent or innoncent bystander in the way will catch a beat down or you might even catch a bullet, the parents of today are at times young and ignorant with violent tempers. During my era I played with Barbie dolls and I had ken, midge and skipper and you know that goes back. now my granddaughter wants a cell phone and she is only 6. I tried to explain to her young mother that a cell phone for a child her age is ridiculous it will make her to grown, who was she going to call any way another 6 yr. old with a cell. There is a trend that i have noticed and that trend is to move your boyfriend into your house and let him take charge over your young children. I have seen young mothers with children meet a man who they have known for a short time, move into their residence and set up house like they were married. The Mother then allows the man to discipline and watch her children while she works or is away from home. Not really knowing how this individual will react with children. Many young children have been killed or maimed because the boyfriend can't handle them because they are so young that they cry, use the bathroom on themselves, won't be quiet or won't go to sleep. In some cases the children have been abused and from the abuse they have died and who is left to suffer the mother who sometimes goes to jail with the man and her remaining children are put into foster care and they may lanquish there because the system is so overwhelmed with hurting children.

welcome

Hello everyone, this is my second time using a blog so bear with me if it is not the best. My kids always tell me how I need to step into the twenty first century, so I'll do my best to blog correctly.
Karen