A few weeks ago I was out having drinks with my friend Angela. Our eldest children attend the same elementary school (hers is in third grade, mine is in second) and she asked me – because I am such a pain in the ass mom and don’t allow my kids to watch television during the week – if I knew the students were being shown movies during indoor recess (which happens during inclement weather).
“Movies?” I asked. “What do you mean?”
She said she was at the orientation the previous year and the principal admitted that when the weather was just too bad for the kids to go outside (which is rare – the teachers will even send the kids outside in February around here), they put on a movie in the gym. “It’s not ideal,” the principal said to the parents, “but we do it sometimes.”
Lily, who acts like an addict and views the television as crack when its on, came home a week or two later and told me about a movie they watched at school that day.
“What was the name of it?” I asked her, pretending it was the coolest thing in the world that she was shown a film when they should be exercising or using their brain instead.
“Air Buddies,” she said. (She meant Air Bud.)
For the record, I looked up Air Bud on my favorite movie Web site, kidsinmind.com and it says the following:
1. The movie is rated PG. (I'm already annoyed.)
2. There is a kiss. (Because I love showing my 7-year-old how to make out.)
3. There are two mild obscenities (I don’t know what they are, but click here to see I don’t really give a rat’s ass about profanity but do about content.)
Stop rolling your eyes at me and hear me out. Regardless of the type of movies you allow your kids to see, I can't see the reasoning behind showing films (especially those with a parental guidance rating) at school. (Besides, shouldn't we as parents have a say as to the type of flicks our kids are seeing?) Plus, we are talking about a learning institution. We pay (with our tax dollars) for our children to be well educated. I mean, come on – I would home school if I thought I could just plop my kids down in front of a TV all day.
I sent an e-mail to the principal asking if we could meet to discuss the topic. I’ll let you know what he says.
As always, feel free to comment. (I can take it.)
Photo by H Berends, courtesy of stock.xchng
4 comments:
They show movies AND CARTOONS at our school and it totally chaps my britches. The teachers cancel recess any time it is wet or cold (Hello, Fall? Winter?) and they also show movies during lunch in the classroom (as a treat for the kids), or at parties, or just the end of the day if the teacher is tired. The reason AND CARTOONS is in caps? Because I mean they turn on the TV to Nickelodean or some such and leave it on whatever happens to be on, commercials and everything.
That is crazy. Have you (or anyone else) spoken to the school about it? I just don't understand. We didn't have that growing up and it makes no sense to have t.v. on now.
I am completely with you. I'm a freak about letting my kid watch stuff on a screen, and have *never* found a movie I think is appropriate for young kids. I'm with you...I don't care about language. I care about content, mostly bad behavior.
Schools are places where people are paid a crappy salary to know what to do with children in a room. They should have something else planned for bad weather. I dont' care if it's recess indoors all day (i really don't because kids learn through play and need some down time anyway), but it had better be supervised and better not be television.
Reeeeeediculous. Start a parental petition if he won't listen. Or call the district if he won't talk to you. This is bullpuckey.
amen!
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