Donald Morrison: The battle for the minds of children | Columnists

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In the great green room, there is a telephone and a red balloon. Identify that line? Class? Anyone?

This was the opening sentence in 1947s Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown’s longtime bestseller. My mother read it to me; I am with my children and grandchildren. Its melatonin on a page. The parents were put to sleep for a few minutes.

However, children may be asked to listen to it again. And again. I am sure. Loved the sound, the sheer magic of those 129 words. I learned to read them long before I went to school.

If you think I’m launching into one of my seasonal sermons to young readers, you’re right. Some of the smartest, most imaginative works ever written are intended for children: Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh, Where Things Are, Green Eggs and Ham. I can go on about other childhood favorites, about rainy afternoons lost in a book, about the worlds of fascination and knowledge that await on the page.

Instead, let current events be discussed.

It actually brought me back to the great green room the other day, but because of it in three news stories. First, the school year is beginning and thousands of young Berkshire residents will try to reclaim the land lost last year that COVID cursed. Second, September is National Reading Month, a time to promote the printed word and the joy of reading, for children and adults.

Yes, adults. Thirty-two million of them are illiterate, according to the Department of Education, and 130 million half of all adults read at or below the sixth grade level. That is almost not enough to fill out a form, much less write a technical report for the job.

The Barbara Bush Foundation says poor adult reading skills cost Americans $ 2 trillion a year in missing wages. The better you read, the better your job and the more you earn.

The third news nugget China has just announced that it limits all student-aged citizens to three hours of video games a week. Children there have ID cards and are required to submit them to gaming sites before playing.

Sure, the new rule is typical commie overreach, but the goal is impressive. Our own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that children in the U.S. now spend six to nine hours a day in front of glowing screens. Studies have linked the level of exposure to attention deficits, sleep and emotional problems, overweight, social isolation, low scores and subpar reading scores. An hour online is usually an hour not spent reading a book.

What is democracy to do?

Our government and online operators are unlikely to restrict access for young people or anyone. So, it is up to the parents to patrol the electronic battlefield and make sure that the children develop good reading skills.

I wrote before about fulfilling the last task. You know: Read to your kids. Let them see you reading. They get a library card. Keep books at home.

But, keeping children away from screens is more difficult. Some tips from the pros: Set screen time limits. Use it as a reward for completed tasks and other good behavior. Learn about and set parental controls that come with many electronic devices, including TVs.

Create tech -free zones, such as the dining room or kitchen. Same for non -tech hours in the day; certainly, foods. Don’t let the little nipper have a phone of their own until you, they are not, are comfortable with that. Take them outside on sports teams, family walks, games or even shopping trips. And leave the devices.

To avoid excessive stimulation of sleep killing, keep hand-me-downs and other gadgets out of their bedrooms, and prohibit all use one hour before the lights. Cut to your own device time or save it for after they go to sleep.

Also, ask them to tell you about anything they see in online puzzles or that bothers them. Explain why you are doing all these steps: electronic devices can be addictive even with dangerous and destructive reading skills.

A tall order, to be sure. But, you can tell your children that if they don’t develop solid reading and writing now, they could be sentenced to a life of low -wage suffering. And if that approach doesn’t work, put it like this: Either the great green room, or we’ll send you to China.

Donald Morrison is an Eagle columnist and co-chairman of the advisory board. The opinions expressed by the columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of The Berkshire Eagle.

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