Is Sponge Bob Destroying Kids' Minds - or Accelerating Their Intelligence

By Amara D. Angelica

Young children who watch fast-paced, fantastical television shows may become “handicapped” in their readiness for learning, says a new University of Virginia study.

U.Va. psychologists tested 4-year-old children immediately after they had watched nine minutes of the popular show “SpongeBob SquarePants” and found that their “executive function” — the ability to pay attention, follow rules, remember what they were told, solve problems, and moderate behavior — had been severely compromised.

“At school, they have to behave properly, they need to sit at a table and eat properly, they need to be respectful, and all of that requires executive functions,” said U.Va. psychology professor Angeline Lillard.

“It is possible that the fast pacing, where characters are constantly in motion from one thing to the next, and extreme fantasy, where the characters do things that make no sense in the real world, may disrupt the child’s ability to concentrate immediately afterward. Another possibility is that children identify with unfocused and frenetic characters, and then adopt their characteristics.”

OK, here’s another possibility: schools are just too damn boring and repressive, and it’s unhealthy to keep kids immobilized like prisoners. Can teachers — who were brainwashed as children to sit quietly, follow the rules, take mind-numbing drugs if they move around, and learn to be good little quiet robots — ever keep up with kids whose minds have been sped up way beyond them?

Here’s an idea: what if we replaced schools — modeled on 19th century factories and churches — with fast-paced animated learning environments using AI-enhanced video games, robot cartoon characters, and educational social networks, so kids can grow up with the ability to handle the wildly accelerating computerized world of the future?

TV Reality Show Inspires Tree Planting

Smith: He Saw the Light and Now He's Planting Trees

Indianapolis Star 9-8-2011 Erika D. Smith

By day, he's a certified public accountant with Crowe Horwath LLP.

By early evening and sometimes by early morning, he's a one-man tree-planting machine.

He's Captain Planet!

Just kidding.

He's David Feinberg, an Indianapolis man who was once so annoyed by environmentalists that he would go out of his way not to recycle. I'm talking deliberately bypassing recycling bins for the trash.

Yet for reasons loosely tied to his love of a TV show (OK, not the cheesy 1990s cartoon "Captain Planet and the Planeteers"), he's decided to plant a tree in a different Indianapolis neighborhood every day this month.

It's an odd project, but it proves that anyone with a little time, money and gumption can do something to improve his or her community. For the small things that can make a big impact, there's no need to wait for help.

"I like to refer to myself as a born-again environmentalist," Feinberg said while digging a hole in an Eastside neighborhood Tuesday.

Next to him, a 5-foot-tall American Hornbeam tree, also known as an Ironwood, lay sprawled on the ground. It was tiny compared with the trees around it, but its new home on North DeQuincy Street seemed appropriate.

"This block is missing one," he said.

Feinberg has taken an odd path from green heathen to green glorifier.

It began about five years ago, when a friend who was in the Peace Corps came to stay with him and his wife, Maureen Keller, for a short time.

Feinberg suddenly found himself outnumbered. His wife and his friend were both big defenders of the environment. Before long, he found himself watching former Vice President Al Gore's documentary on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth."

Feinberg was a changed man.

He planted a garden in his backyard and began composting. But that wasn't enough.

One day, his favorite reality TV show, "30 Days," gave him an idea. In the show, people spend 30 days doing something they've never done before, whether it's working for minimum wage or living as a Muslim.

"I loved that idea," he said, "so I said I'm going to bring all of this together."

Feinberg's first challenge: become a vegetarian for a month.

He figured it was a worthy green goal because it takes more water and other resources to produce meat for consumption than to grow vegetables.

His second challenge: become a locavore -- or localvore -- for a month.

For the uninitiated, that means he used only products made in Indiana for one month. I'm talking everything from locally grown food to locally made deodorant to gas from Greenfield's GasAmerica. The only products he couldn't find were salt and hair gel.

And now Feinberg is on to his third challenge: plant a tree every day for a month.

He made use of his contacts at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful to persuade the nonprofit to supply all 30 trees, most of which are of species native to Indiana.

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful also helped narrow a list of locations for the trees based on various social and economic factors. So if you see a guy with dark hair and glasses planting a tree on the Near Eastside, in Herron-Morton or along Binford Boulevard, that's Feinberg.

"It takes about a half-hour to plant a tree," he said. "I read somewhere that people spend 30 minutes a day on Facebook. Plant a tree instead."

Or, as Captain Planet would say: "The power is yours!"

Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing To Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown - TV and Radio Dramas Change Behavior

"While the attention of researchers has focused on the role of formal education in reducing fertility, soap operas on radio and television can even more quickly change people's attitudes about reproductive health, gender equity, family size, and environmental protection. A well-written soap opera can gave profound near-term effect on population growth. It costs relatively little and can proceed even while formal educational systems are being expanded.

The Power of this approach was pioneered by Miguel Sabido, a vice president of Televis, Mexico's national television network, when he did a series of soap opera segments on illiteracy. The day after one of the characters in his soap opera visited a literacy office wanting to learn how to read and write, a quarter-million people showed up at these offices in Mexico City. Eventually 840,000 Mexicans enrolled in literacy courses after watching the series.

Sabido dealt with contraception in a soap opera entitled Acompaname, which translates as Come With Me. Over the span of a decade this drama series helped reduce Mexico's birth rate by 34%.

Other groups outside Mexico quickly picked up this approach. The U.S.-based Population Media Center (PMC) headed by William Ryerson, has initiated projects in some 15 countries and is planning launches in several others. The PMC's work in Ethiopia over the last several years provides a telling example. Their radio serial dramas broadcast in Amharic and Oromiffa have addressed issues of reproductive health and gender equity, such as HIV/AIDS, family planning, and the education of girls. A survey two years after the broadcasts began in 2002 found that 63% of new clients seeking reproductive health care at Ethiopia's 48 service centers had listened to one of PMC's dramas.

Among married women in the Amhara region of Ethiopia who listened to the dramas, there was a 55-percent increase in those using family planning. Male listeners sought HIV tests at a rate four times that of non-listeners, while female listeners were tested at three times the rate of female non-listeners. The average number of children per woman in the region dropped from 5.4 to 4.3. And demand for Contraceptives increased 157 percent."

Drew Westen - NY Times - Why stories matter

"The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. Our brains evolved to “expect” stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought. Our species existed for more than 100,000 years before the earliest signs of literacy, and another 5,000 years would pass before the majority of humans would know how to read and write.

Stories were the primary way our ancestors transmitted knowledge and values. Today we seek movies, novels and “news stories” that put the events of the day in a form that our brains evolved to find compelling and memorable. Children crave bedtime stories; the holy books of the three great monotheistic religions are written in parables; and as research in cognitive science has shown, lawyers whose closing arguments tell a story win jury trials against their legal adversaries who just lay out 'the facts of the case.' "

Made in Dagenham

I saw this film September 2nd of 2010 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

In 1968 in Dagenham, England, a small number of women went on strike against Ford. The workers at the huge Ford finishing plant were overwhelmingly male. These women were striking for two reasons. First, their jobs were re-classified from semi-skilled to unskilled. Second, regardless of the job classification, they simply made a substantial percentage less than men whose positions were graded the same.

No one was on their side – not the Ford management (obviously), not the male-dominated union leadership, not their husbands and significant others, and not the government. And, these women were workers, not labor activists. They were truly amateurs.

They persevered and struggled. They showed daring and restraint – they showed courage and fear – they showed strength and weakness – they sacrificed and were oh so human in their once-in-a-lifetime chance to try to make a difference.

The story is told simply without tricks. But the story is interesting and matters because you slowly begin to care for the characters and you want things to end right.

We know today that women have a legal right to earn equal pay for equal work. You have to watch this movie to see if the women of Dagenham obtained that right.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Flipped

I saw this film in late March, of 2010 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

This is a coming of age film set initially and briefly in the late 1950s and mostly in the early 1960s. The boy, Bryce, is chased by his neighbor girl, Juli. And is he chased! Juli is immediately smitten or “flipped” by Bryce’s eyes and the story unfolds.

What is unusual about the story telling is that each major event is played back twice – once through the eyes and voice of Bryce and once through the eyes and voice of Juli. It’s the same scene, but you wouldn’t know that from their differing viewpoints.

Juli is the adventurous and interesting one. Bryce just wants to fit in at their Junior High School. Juli slowly begins to unlike Bryce and Bryce slowly begins to appreciate Juli. Will they ever meet at the same emotional place at the same time? That is the drama and story.

The art direction and era are right on. It is the Eisenhower and Kennedy years in look, and even in feel. The wives are subordinate to the husbands. The children are mostly respectful to their parents. And the teachers teach and the students learn. But, you can see the seeds being laid for the rebellious war babies of the late1960s.

Rob Reiner is a talented director for romances – “When Harry Met Sally.” And he is a talented director for handling young actors – “Stand By Me.” He combines these talents to help us understand the better part of the human condition; that is, love, respect, sacrifice, forgiveness, and honor. And we have fun and laugh along the way. This is like the TV program, “Wonder Years” – but heightened and deepened.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Ramona and Beezus

I saw this film on May 12th of 2010 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

Ramona and Beezus are sisters. Ramona is in grade school and Beezus is in high school. They get along pretty good for being quite different ages, but their real conflict comes with Ramona’s unique skill of getting into trouble or doing inappropriate things. Beezus, on the other hand, is the perfect daughter and sister.

Ramona is not mean spirited. She is a daydreamer and has an overactive imagination and has trouble focusing. This puts her into difficult situations. Oh yes, and she is unlucky too.

The small problems of Ramona quickly get dwarfed by the big problem of her Dad losing his job through no fault of his own. He has a hard time getting another job, and this causes financial and emotional stress for the whole family. This is the focus of the movie.

This is a delightful and funny and entertaining movie for young grade school children. It teaches many important lessons that are worth knowing and reinforcing. The most important lesson is that families have their ups and downs. But if they all remember they love each other and treat each other with respect, something positive can emerge from the downs or hard times.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Storytelling is vital to being a human being

"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths."

Reynolds Price

A Palpable God

How To Train Your Dragon

I saw this film in early March, of 2010 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

It’s in 3-D and it’s gorgeous animation. But what really matters is the story. And it’s a good one. At first it seems the main story is about a Viking colony equally distant from nowhere, which is being constantly attacked by a wide variety of marauding dragons. It’s a full time job trying to keep the dragons at bay and the Viking warriors are often out on their boats hunting their wily and ferocious opponents.

But really the story is about a father and chief of the Vikings who has a young son, Hiccup, who is small and who is a slick, sarcastic talker and who doesn’t take orders well, but still seeks respect from his impressive father. At first, his Father will not let his son be a warrior Viking, but later relents to have Hiccup train with the other youngsters. But the young boy gets sidetracked and instead of wanting to kill dragons, the boy befriends them and seeks to understand them.

A young and inexperienced son seeking approval of a strong father is an often-told tale. Sons often act foolishly trying to impress their fathers. And fathers often ignore the strivings of their sons. In this case, there is honor and courage on all sides and it is inspiring to watch the father and son wrestle with their relationship.

And yes, about the dragons – they ARE ferocious and talented and aggressive warriors.
But their motivations are a mystery that unfolds slowly. And that’s the fun of this film.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

A Shine of Rainbows

I saw this film in December, of 2009 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

Tomas is a young boy that is bullied and unhappy at an orphanage. He is suddenly and mysteriously adopted by a childless couple, who live simply and modestly on a very remote Irish island. The Mother, although in ill health, is a woman of astounding positive energy and beauty and sets herself to healing the mental and physical scars of the boy’s unfortunate upbringing. The Father meanwhile loves his wife dearly, but is far less excited by the recovering, damaged boy.

Intertwined with this awkward triangle relationship is light fantasy and legend and mystery of the gorgeous Irish coast. The Irish coast is so beautifully rendered that it is like a fourth character.

There is suddenly a great change in circumstances and two parts of the triangle have to come to terms with this tragedy. It takes courage and resolve and change and love.

The three actors of the triangle are vivid and hold your attention and each ultimately moves you emotionally in three different ways.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.