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What "Just Being a Kid" Means Today
The Sedentary Life of Children
By Rae Pica
Both, they say, involve individuals sitting motionless before a screen that feeds them "a rapid succession of images." They add: "Both computers and television present us with an artificial world that undermines our ability to experience the real one. We should bear this in mind when contemplating the possible effects of computer use on young children."
Naturally, this isn't the place to delve into the ill effects of computer use on children under the age of 8. For the purposes of this chapter, motionless is the key word. Whether staring at a computer or a television screen, the children are sedentary! And they're not just plopped in front of computers at home either; more and more class time is being spent at computers, in lieu of learning that uses a variety of senses.
In 1967, writing in The Aims of Education, Alfred North Whitehead stated: "I lay it down as an educational axiom that in teaching you will come to grief as soon as you forget that your pupils have bodies." No one, it seems, took note. Thirty-five years later, were he writing in a publication for parents, he might well issue a similar warning for them and their offspring.
This article is excerpted from Your Active Child: How to Boost Physical, Emotional and Cognitive Development Through Age-Apropriate Activity (McGraw-Hill, 2003) by Rae Pica
