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Week Ahead,
April 26 - May 3
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Unplug Yourself - Building Media Awareness
By Tom Keller
April 21-27th was the 2nd Annual TV-Turnoff Week, a nationwide effort that asks people to reassess the role TV plays in their daily lives. To take notice of the ever-present media in our lives, we asked our students and faculty to observe a week free of both screen and electronic media - as best as they could. It has been interesting to hear how students quickly notice the degrees of importance that electronic media plays in their lives.
“I always thought that music was important in my life,” said seventh grader Rose F., “but I didn’t realize I couldn’t live with out it.” For three days Rose abstained from all media, including her iPod and other music-playing devices. Whereas not checking her email wasn’t very difficult for her, not listening to music was a tremendous sacrifice. “Music is so relaxing and calming. I love reading but a book always has an internal conflict. With music you don’t even have to pay attention to the lyrics - you can just lie down and listen.” Because of the stress of tests, Rose chose to return to her music listening. However, she says this exercise gave her a new appreciation for the role music plays in her life.
This is a wonderful example of what we sought to accomplish with this exercise. Rather than an “all or nothing” approach, we asked students to do the best that they could. It was just as interesting to become aware of our media dependencies by looking at the media that students felt they couldn’t live without.
We hope that many of our students have shared this news with you at home and that you’ve had a chance to take a much needed break from media to enjoy each others' company, venture outside for a walk, or take pleasure in a good old-fashioned board game free from the familiar e-glow.
To build on our week-long exercise, next week we will be helping kids become more media savvy by analyzing different advertisements, tv programs, newspaper articles et al. We hope that in asking a few questions, such as who wrote the article, why was it written, and what is its message, we can help our students become better equipped to handle the constant barrage of media they encounter on a daily basis. Please take a moment to ask your children about our media literacy program and discuss what they are learning from it over these next few weeks.
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