The Pica Perspective

What Could Nickelodeon Be Thinking?

This from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood:

Nickelodeon, the children's media empire, is promoting sexualized and violent video games to children as young as preschoolers.  Its popular gaming website, Addictinggames.com, features games such as Candy the Naughty Cheerleader, Bloody Day ("Back alley butchering has never been so much fun. . . . How many kills can you rack?") and the Perry the Sneak series, where gamers take the role of a peeping Tom  trying to catch revealing glimpses of scantily clad and naked women.  Nickelodeon promotes, and links directly to, Addictinggames.com on its Nick.com website for children and even on NickJr.com, its website for preschoolers.

Tell Nick:  Stop Promoting "Naughty" Games to Young Children.

After some of the games - and Nick's links to them on its websites for children - were featured in this YouTube video and this report on Good Morning America,Nickelodeon pulled a few (e.g. Vanessa Naughty Pics and Whack Your Ex). But Nickelodon was clearly more concerned about protecting its reputation than protecting children. They continue to link to AddictingGames.com on Nick.com and NickJr.com.

AddictingGames.com, which boasts about its large collection of "naughty games" and "shooting games," continues to features many games with sexual and violent content, including the following. All descriptions are taken directly from AddictingGames.com:

* Stick Figure Penalty Chamber 2:  "Small, black, stick figure death can happen in so many different ways! Do you choose shotgun to the face, or acid in the lungs?"

* Naughty Classroom - "Hot for teacher?...Here's your chance to fulfill your ultimate childhood fantasy.  Naughty Classroom will leave you begging for more homework."

* Dark Cut 2 - "More macho surgery! No anesthetic. No antiseptics. Just rusty knives, corn whiskey, and lots of blood!"

* Foxy Sniper - "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Fear me, because I am a crack shot! Assassination isn't just a job; it's a way of life."

Please take a moment to demand that Nickelodeon stop promoting sexualized and violent videogames to young children. And be sure to let other parents know what Nick is up to. Please spread the word to friends and family and promote this campaign on Twitter and Facebook.

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Toys to Get Kids Moving & Improving -- article and photo gallery: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/01/AR2009120103896.html .

Going Holiday Shopping? Beware the "Pink" & "Blue" Aisles!

What's on your child's wish list this holiday season? And in what toy store aisle will you be shopping?

Wednesday's post got me thinking about gender differences -- or, at least, the way we perceive gender differences. For example, there was a study showing that parents -- especially fathers -- described girls as "softer, finer-featured, smaller, weaker, and more delicate" than boys. Other studies, in which infants were "disguised" in cross-gender clothing, demonstrated that parents brought trucks to the supposed boy babies and dolls to those they considered girls.

Of course parents aren't the only ones in our society promoting gender stereotyping and inequality. Children are bombarded daily with television images marketing what they conceive to be the "norm": boys playing with cars, trucks, and action figures and girls playing with dolls. "Pink" aisles in the toy stores feature dolls, makeup, and miniature appliances, while "blue" aisles offer vehicles and war toys. "Boys'" toys tend to promote problem solving and exploration, which in turn help develop confidence and competence. "Girls'" toys, by contrast limit exploration and discourage independence and problem solving.

One result of all this is that, regardless of what they may have asked for, boys more often receive activity-oriented toys and games, while girls are given stuffed animals, toy houses, kitchen sets, and dress-up outfits. Researchers have found that no matter what toys are on the children's lists, parents and others give them gender-specific toys. Girls are then praised for playing with dolls -- and boys are ignored when displaying nurturing behavior.

Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for young children to catch on. Children as young as four have said that playing with dolls, picking flowers, dressing up, skipping, and dancing are what girls do. Boys are supposed to be fighting and playing football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, and karate.

What's on your child's wish list this holiday season? And in what toy store aisle will you be shopping?

Empowering Girls to Tinker and Take Risks!

According to a piece in Education Week, "Teaching Girls to Tinker," "men still receive 77 percent of the bachelor degrees awarded in engineering and 85 percent of those in computer science." The article poses the question: "Why aren't girls choosing to enter these critical fields of the future?" One proposed answer: Adults don't encourage girls to tinker.

"Teachers allow boys to struggle with math problems long after they have rushed in and rescued girls from the same struggle....  Teachers show boys how to work machines such as staplers or VCRs, while they tend to staple papers or start VCRs for girls.  By letting boys struggle and tinker, adults send the message 'I have high expectations for you, so I will wait a little longer.  I know you can get it if I give you a chance.'  By intervening rapidly with girls, adults let them know that they that they should be afraid of doubt, investigation, and experimentation — all of the essential elements of tinkering."

This reminds me quite a bit of the attitude toward girls and physical activity. As children get older, parents tend to talk more to their daughters, encourage them to help others, and discourage autonomy. Boys, on the other hand, are encouraged to be fearless. one study used videotapes of children on a playground to prove this. The tapes showed that mothers of daughters were more likely to see danger in their activity, and they intervened more quickly and more often than did mothers of sons. Mothers of daughters also issued more statements of caution, while mothers of sons offered more words encouraging risk taking. Similarly, one researcher points out that, when a baby boy falls down, parents make light of it, encouraging the child to get up and try again. On the other hand, when a baby girl takes a tumble, we race over to pick her up and make sure she's OK.

Throughout childhood boys tend to have more interaction with their fathers than girls, with vigorous physical activity predominant in that interaction. Boys also receive more encouragement from both parents and society to participate in physical activity -- a message girls are receiving, even if only subconsciously.

Sure, there are differences between the genders. The idea is not to make girls and boys the same -- simply to be sure they're afforded equal opportunities and advantages, whether we're talking about being physically active, tinkering, or taking risks!

Worth reading: "Four Flawed Assumptions about School Reform -- and What Can Be Done about Them" in Education Week:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/12/09/14hatch.h29.html?tkn=RSXF3C3bmUmeGQPkrexAcrKAKGh7U1b9u4Hb .

Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment

Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment (TRUCE) is the name of a national group of educators deeply concerned about the impact of children's entertainment and toys on the play and behavior of children in their classrooms. Their goal is to raise public awareness about the negative effects of violent, sexualized, and stereotyped toys and media on children, families, schools, and society. They support parents and teachers in a variety of ways in addressing issues regarding media, toys, and play.

New on their website is the "Infant & Toddler Play, Toys & Media ACTION GUIDE, which includes such articles as the following:

• What is different about play today?
• Why is quality play so important?                           
• What types of toys support healthy play?
• Infant & Toddler Toys to Avoid

This and other resources are free and available for download at the TRUCE site. They encourage you to copy and distribute!

This is the time of year to think of such things, so do take advantage!

Too Much Television

In August of this year researchers in the U.S. and Spain, who had collaborated on the study of 111 children ages 3 to 8, reported that of all the forms of inactivity they examined, television-viewing was the worst. It was linked to significantly higher blood pressure in children — the more TV kids watched, the higher their blood pressure — and the effect held true regardless of whether a child was heavy or at a healthy weight.

Now comes word that children in home-based child care are watching twice as much television as was previously believed. According to a study released online Monday and published in the December issue of Pediatrics, a survey of 168 child-care programs in four states, researchers found that toddlers, ages 1 to 3, in home-based day-care centers watched an average of 1.6 hours of television there each day, including videos and DVDs. Preschool-age children, 3 to 5 years old, watched 2.4 hours a day in home-based centers.

Previous studies had indicated that preschool-age children watch television from 1 to 3 hours a day, but those figures were based on parents' estimation of TV viewing at home and didn't include time spent in front of the screen at daycare.

Based on this, I hope parents will be more rigorous in choosing child care. And if child-care providers wish to be seen as professionals and not merely babysitters (a common complaint in the field), they'd best turn off those TVs and make sure the children are engaged in something more healthy and educational -- like active play!

To read Arne Duncan's address at the NAEYC opening general session, go here: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/11/11182009.html . The speech was titled "The Early Learning Challenge: Raising the Bar."

Notes from the NAEYC Conference

Back from the annual NAEYC conference, this year in the epicenter of education, Washington DC.

One of the highlights: Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaking at the opening general session. I find it astonishing that this is the first time an Education Secretary has ever addressed an NAEYC gathering. The fact that he was there certainly speaks to the Administration's commitment to early childhood in general and early childhood education in particular.

Mr. Duncan was more than warmly received, getting a standing ovation both at his introduction and at the close of his speech. As to what he had to say, I was among those impressed with the dollar figures he announced. That kind of money devoted to early childhood education is unprecedented. And he did reference cooperative play at one point, which had me whooping with delight.

I must admit, though, that I'm maintaining my "wait-and-see" attitude. Every time he referred to "high-quality early childhood education," I wanted to demand that he define it! Does his/the government's definition of high-quality education match mine? Time will tell...

He certainly was good-natured, even agreeing to be part of a "chorus line" of sorts, backing up popular singing duo Greg & Steve! Not surprisingly, someone caught a bit of it on their phone and posted it to YouTube.

Do Sports Build Character?

According to a recent report, Susan Connor, manager of the injury prevention program at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, and her team studied the responses of more than 13,000 U.S. high school students who took part in the 2007 Youth Risk Behavioral Study, an assessment of adolescent high-risk behaviors conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For boys, the study found that participation in team sports correlated with an increased likelihood of fighting, drinking and binge drinking. Rates of depression and smoking, however, seemed to decline. The piece below was first posted in October of 2007. But, with the release of this new information, I thought I'd run it again.

It's a given that parents only want the best for their children. And that's one of the reasons they enroll them in organized sports -- often at a very early age; they believe that sports participation builds "character."

People can go on and on, expounding on the many values children supposedly learn by taking part in competitive sports. It's been the conventional wisdom for longer than I've been alive. But the truth is, there's little research to support the theory. There is, however, evidence to the contrary.

Consider this: a 1995 poll of 198 Olympic or aspiring Olympic athletes, reported in Sports Illustrated, showed to what lengths individuals will go to win. Asked if they would take a banned, performance-enhancing substance that would both go undetected and enable them to win, 195 said they would; only three said no. And when asked if they would take such a substance if they wouldn't get caught, they would win every competition entered for five years, and then die from the substance's side effects, more than half of the athletes said yes!

But, you may be thinking, those were athletes whose lives had revolved around winning for many years; they're probably an exception to the rule.

Maybe, but the attitude had to begin sometime and grow from there, as this story indicates: a survey of 965 students at four middle schools in Massachusetts found that almost 3% of the children were using anabolic steroids to enhance their appearance and performance. From where do children as young as 10 learn such skewed priorities?

Other research shows that long-term participation in sports results in the display of less sportsmanship and more aggressive behavior -- and that even if athletes learn some prosocial behaviors on the field, they rarely transfer them to other areas of their lives. Studies have also demonstrated that competitive children are both less generous and less empathetic than others.

Most recently, the Josephson Institute of Ethics released a report on the impact of high school sports on the values and ethics of student athletes. Here's part of what it found:

• Boys who play baseball, football, and basketball are more likely to cheat on the field and in school.
• Nearly half of the baseball and football players saw nothing wrong with using a playbook stolen from a rival team.
• A high percentage of both male and female athletes thought it was okay for a coach to tell a player to fake an injury.
• About half of all baseball players thought it was okay for a coach to tell a pitcher to throw at the opposing batter.

Still, people continue to believe that sports participation builds character. But is that the kind of "character" we want our children to grow up with?