Every time you ask a question about your TV, even if it doesn't answer back, you're doing the right thing. You are becoming more media literate. It's perfectly fine to ask questions about the pervasive influence of commercials, the content of programming, and the seductive spell cast by the glow of the flat screen (or tube, if you've got an old-enough set that still works). The task becomes a critical one for parents as they grind their teeth in anxiety over making TV their children's electronic baby sitter. Or making the computer the sitter. Or the video game. A new online guide, produced jointly by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Alliance for Childhood in collaboration with an organization called TRUCE -- short for Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment -- helps clarify the issues for parents, and grandparents, too. Called "Facing the Screen Dilemma: Young Children, Technology and Early Education," the 27-page guide asks and addresses the questions about "screen time" that parents find difficult to frame, let alone resolve. "Based on mounting evidence, we are worried about the harm done to children's health, development and learning in today's media-saturated, commercially driven culture," says the foreword to "Facing the Screen Dilemma." The full guide can be found online.
Kurt Hilgefort, is a Catholic father of six who publishes his thoughts on his blog Shadows of Augustine . He responded to my seven question survey with the following answers. Kurt is the first layperson to respond to the seven question survey and I think that his experience is extremely relevant to me personally and I hope that you are inspired by his thoughts as well. If you would like to respond, please send an email to fellmananthony@gmail.com with your thoughts and I will be happy to publish them as well. 1. What is the biggest challenge to your faith that you have faced so far? The biggest challenge for me has been the whole dying to self thing. On an intellectual level, there are no barriers. It comes down to a matter of accepting the authority of the Church that Christ founded upon Peter. My challenge is not in the intellect, but rather in the will. The challenge for me has always been to continually seek conversion. I want to be transformed, but I want it to be over all ...
