All My Children

School and its curriculum

It goes without saying that your teenager’s schoolwork should include the basics: reading, writing, math, history, and so forth. In general, it’s reasonable to assume that your local schools are staffed by men and women who take their job seriously and have their students’ best interests at heart. If your teenager is having problems understanding the material or getting the work done, you will want to review some basic strategies in Special Concerns.

But what if the problem isn’t academics but personality or ideology? What if a particular teacher seems to have it in for your son or daughter, or a class appears to be pushing a political or social agenda that disagrees with yours? What if the family-life or sex-education unit is contradicting everything you have been teaching at home? And, more important, what if your adolescent is subjected to ridicule for expressing a contrary point of view? Continue Reading »

Other electronic media

The potential hazards of unrestricted access to video games and computer on-line services (including the Internet).

Literature and nonliterature, including pornography

While you want to encourage reading as an alternative to TV watching, pay attention to the material your adolescent brings home from the library or bookstore. Much of what lands on current best-seller lists is truly pulp fiction, laced with vivid scenes of horror, violence, and sex that are far more explicit than the contents of most R-rated films. Continue Reading »

To prevent the tube from taking over your child’s world, set specific ground rules for everyone:

1. Preplan how much, when (after homework and other responsibilities are done), and what will be viewed.
2. Invest in a VCR and blank videocassette tapes. If something particularly worthwhile is going to be broadcast at an inopportune time, tape it for viewing later. While videocassette recorders can lure families to rent more movies than they need, when used prudently they are a great investment and time-saver; ultimately they give you more options with more control over content and scheduling.
3. Think twice before installing a TV in your child’s room. You’ll lose control of the viewing activity, and your child will be isolated from the normal flow of family life.

Continue Reading »

In the mid-1950s, no television had more than twelve channels, the content of movies was constrained by a code of strictly enforced values, the top ten songs on the radio dealt with “moons and Junes,” and the most provocative game in the toy store was Monopoly. Today scorching language, gut-wrenching violence, casual nudity, mind-boggling sexual acts, and general disrespect for life and traditional values are readily accessible to anyone, including children. Words and images that are inappropriate for children (or anyone else) can literally flood a home that does not take deliberate steps to stem the tide.

And while you may be careful about the types of things you allow your children to see, neighbors up the street may be careless about the images flickering on their TV screen or who is in the room to see them. Continue Reading »