As a parent I appreciate and understand how much energy and time parenting young children requires. We love our children and want to give them the very best, often things that we feel we were not given ourselves. As a teacher I see how detrimental the effects of television, computer games and bad nutrition are for young children whose physical bodies are still forming.
\nWhen I started teaching I couldn\u2019t honestly say with any amount of conviction that television and computer games have damaging effects, although I understood it intellectually. However, now I say it with absolute conviction. When you allow your child to watch television daily, to play computer games and feed them sugary foods and food without any nutritional value, YOU are placing obstacles before your child and hindering their ability to perform well, both academically and socially. You are not giving them the very best opportunity in life; in fact you\u2019re the one who is hindering their progress.
\nYou may think that because your child performs well academically that they are not having to overcome any obstacles but they also don\u2019t perform very well socially, they distract and irritate their peers because they can\u2019t sit still, stop making sounds, stop fidgeting, pulling faces and generally getting lost in their cyber world. They\u2019re also often the ones who are bored. This infringes on all our rights, my right to teach and their right to learn.
\n\u201cIt takes a village to raise a child.\u201d We should add educate to that, \u201cIt takes a village to raise and educate a child\u201d we often forget that we teach best through imitation, they will do as we do. We all need to raise and educate our children with similar visions in mind which is why we choose an education like the one Waldorf provides. If a teacher says with absolute conviction \u201cTelevision, computer games, too much sugar is bad for you\u201d, will children not question why their parents allow it then? If you say the same thing with absolute authority, because you are the one who holds authority in your child\u2019s life, they will believe you.
\nSo many children today suffer from ADHD and ADD, in every classroom, in every school there are more than a couple of children who have been diagnosed with this learning disability. At other schools children are lined up and given their daily dose of Ritalin, they treat the symptom and not the cause. Children will watch TV, they will play computer games, they will eat as many sweet things as they can, it\u2019s fun, it tastes great but it\u2019s not good for them AND it\u2019s addictive so it won\u2019t be easy to break the habit but if you really want the best for them, these are some of the obstacles that are within your power to remove.
\nWe only have about 12 years to parent our children, let\u2019s make it good.<\/p>\n
With light and love
\nMelanie Francis
\nClass 3 Teacher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a parent I appreciate and understand how much energy and time parenting young children requires. We love our children and want to give them the very best, often things that we feel we were not given ourselves. As a teacher I see how detrimental the effects of television, computer games and bad nutrition are …<\/p>\n