Re: [MOPO] DEAR OLD OLD OLD OLD FREINDS and all the Ships at Sea!!!

[Dave Rosen]

Agree with all this but also believe that education, like everything else, really begins in the home. Or at the very least, needs to be supported there by parents with an awareness of its value.   Reading is especially crucial for developing intellectual curiosity and independent thinking. I am still stunned when I walk into someone's home and don't see a book anywhere in sight. Meanwhile, the TV (sometimes more than one) blares away, whether anyone is actually watching it or not.   Lulled by the big-screen nanny, many parents no longer see or understand the value of reading to their children and helping them to develop an interest in the world outside their subdivision.   Meanwhile, the news and entertainment media serve up funhouse mirror views of the past, where nothing pre-dates the Second World War or WW I at the earliest because the optics are not good enough to interest someone brought up on high definition, plasma screens and CGI.   Even when post-WW II events are dealt with we are usually handed a pastiche of top-40 hits and clips from old TV shows instead of proper scholarship and analysis. Talking heads are BORING. Going into the reasons things really happen is BORING. Real history is BORING. That's the message.   Yet nothing could be further from the truth.   I see this increasing lack of interest in or understanding of or even simple recall of history as distressing while North Americans ramp up their pursuit of self-indulgent happiness to the detriment of the planet as a whole.   (Sorry to go all earnest on you. Guess who was a history major in college?)   Dave       It was named Idlewild before being renamed JFK.     The big problem today is children (and adults also) spend too much time playing video games and talking on phones in lieu of reading.  How many watch the History Channel, etc?  Microsoft and Intel are complaining that they need more visas for people to come into this country and work for them because people here do not have the skills they require.    We worry about everything from the price of gas to the size of cars but the real problem is education.  The cost of education for their children is far too much for the middle class but the President is more interested in filling the bank accounts of the ones who really do not need the money.   CJL Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.