Journal Entries

So...I have to do journal entries for my Writing Across the Curriculum class, and I thought, why not post them here, too?

Our first journal is supposed to be our personal reflections on an issue of Pediatrics (Vol. 113 No. 4 April 2004, pp. 708-713) titled "Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children," as well as the "Baby College" broadcast of This American Life. So...here is my first journal entry.

As is probably obvious, I am new to education-oriented classes. I am also relatively new to the decision to become a teacher, though my mother has told me for years that I should do it. I’m not going to lie and tell you that my first sitting in your [referring to Dr. Waters, my professor] class was not intimidating. It was nothing less than nerve-wracking. I have not yet been accepted into the TEP, and no one told me about the test or the interview, so I was a little shaken when I left. Still, I’ve decided to give things a shot, and continue with your course, intimidating though it may be. So, I have done the first journal assignment, as you asked. I must say that while I believe that both the Pediatrics article and the “Baby College” broadcast of This American Life have certain relevant points, I also believe that one can be over-zealous with programs and articles such as these.

I had questions concerning the data in the Pediatrics article. What sort of shows were the children who turned out to have attention deficit disorders at age seven watching? Were they educational shows geared toward toddlers, or were they watching daytime talk shows, etc.? Is there a significant difference between them in the results? Was the experiment single blind or double blind? How thorough were the researchers? Is it as unbiased as they would have us believe? It seemed to me that they were looking for a specific outcome, and they found it. I would have to see more specific data before I believe that all kinds of television are detrimental to the attention spans of young children. I know that my own capability to stay on task depends largely on whether or not I am genuinely interested and engaged in a task. I can stay at a task tirelessly, for hours on end, if I enjoy it and if I am truly interested in seeing results. If I do not like the task at hand, however, I will find reasons to avoid doing it until it must be done. One must also ask whether or not the children being studied were genetically predisposed to attention deficit disorders, as individuals. That could have a distinct bearing on the outcome of the study. For myself, I can say that attention span breaks down to 15% genetics, 10% behavioral training, and 75% sheer will to complete a task without being sidetracked. Personally, I believe that attention span comes down to a conscious choice to stay on task, unless a medical condition such as ADD or ADHD gets in the way of a child’s ability to choose between staying on track or being distracted.

As for the “Baby College” broadcast, I agreed with most of it, but I found some parts to be difficult to swallow. I vehemently agree with how vitally important they believe it is to introduce young children to language, communication, and reading. My parents helped prime me for learning well by talking and reading to me regularly when I was young. They sent me to preschool, too. I firmly believe that I would not have been as successful in school as I have thus far, were it not for their emphasis on reading and communication. On the point of corporal punishment, my opinion differs from theirs. Time-outs can work for most children a large percentage of the time. I am not dismissing its merits. However, I feel that corporal punishment can be a necessary evil on certain occasions. My parents used both for me when I was a child, and while spankings were very rare, they were effective. I will also add that they tended to hurt my pride worse than my bottom, and I earned every spanking I ever got. In our house, spanking was a last resort, and oftentimes we did not have to go there. Still, there were times when I was being completely unreasonable and no other form of communication could get through to me. Spankings worked when nothing else did. Though I believe that its place in modern society is very small, corporal punishment is not obsolete or ineffective.