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What Danes consider healthy children’s television

economist.com

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Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#31

Post by Munksgaard »

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #23

I'm a Dane, and grew up with Danish children's television, including the shows mentioned in the article. I just recently re-watched one of my favorite shows "Nanna", which you can now stream from the archives of DR. Even as an adult, I still enjoy watching it for its humor and creativity, and for the fact that it doesn't speak down to its audience. I don't think that can be said about most other children's shows. htt…

Some might even recognize the dad as Jesper Christensen, who portrays Mr. White in the recent James Bond movies.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#32

Post by koolba »

> Probably most striking, though, is another thing lacking: education. Quite simply, there is none, academic or moral.

I already love this!

If there's one thing that children need to experience at an early age, it's that the majority of what they'll deal with in life will have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Life should be enjoyed for life ... it doesn't always have to be a backhanded way to learn to count.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#33

Post by teddyh »

erelde wrote: post #17
tclancy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am old enough (40) with a daughter who is almost 3, to be a little horrified by kids' TV. It's not that there isn't a ton of "good" stuff for her, it's that there is only "good" stuff. There isn't anything not geared toward teaching her math, reading or morals. When I was a kid, that was PBS and a handful of other shows and the rest of it was people whacking the crap out of each other to make me bug my parents to b…

Get some copies of the classic Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry 1940-1950 for example. (not the sixties it all goes downhill, the drawing isn't as good, they begin talking, too much characters).

You may not be aware, but those cartoons were originally made for adults, to be shown in cinemas before the main feature film.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#34

Post by koolba »

> Probably most striking, though, is another thing lacking: education. Quite simply, there is none, academic or moral.

I already love this!

If there's one thing that children need to experience at an early age, it's that the majority of what they'll deal with in life will have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Life should be enjoyed for life ... it doesn't always have to be a backhanded way to learn to count.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#35

Post by clydethefrog »

skrebbel wrote: post #8

Kaj and Andreea is fantastic! I'm Dutch but my wife is Danish. She does her utmost best confronting our kids with Danish TV (we live in Holland), so I understand a bit of what the author is on about. I was initially surprised as well. Truth is, it _is_ entertaining! But most importantly, once you get past the absolutely amateuristic way things are shot (hey, the kids don't care, why should you?), there's a lot of dep…

It reminds me of the output of Dutch public broadcaster VPRO during the 90s and 00s. Looking back at fragments of series like Purno de Purno and Rembo en Rembo, it's remarkable how this was allowed to air. A state-funded Sunday morning programme full of references to sex [1] and other stuff people would find morally questionable to show to kids nowadays. But I don't remember it being bad for me as a kid, I thought it was fun: the naked bodies made me laugh. I didn't reenact the bad behaviour shown, I knew it was just for show and exaggerated. I remember an interview with the makers some years ago, arguing that it's better to show sex as a fun thing and let you children ask about it instead of keeping it silent. And that's it better than having kids shows where violence is a big part of the entertainment.

[1] NSFW: Purno de Purno episode called the "The big nude woman" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUIbD-SASjo

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#36

Post by sverige »

nitrogen wrote: post #30
lintiness wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i've never met a more evangelical (from the greek) crowd than atheists.

You really ought to get to know some Mormons ;) (spoken as a former believer). One reason some groups, like atheists or evangelicals, are so vocal is because they believe that the damage done to society by others not sharing their beliefs will be irreparable. This is why beliefs and decisions need to be rooted in reproducible evidence, rather than the reverse.

There are many kinds of evidence that are not reproducible.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#37

Post by pessimizer »

lintiness wrote: post #20
arethuza wrote: post #5

"Supreme Being is not only imaginary" I was immensely proud when my son at 4 years old decided to stand up in his pre-school class and point this out to everyone.

i've never met a more evangelical (from the greek) crowd than atheists.

Good news?

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#38

Post by bodhi »

skrebbel wrote: post #8

Kaj and Andreea is fantastic! I'm Dutch but my wife is Danish. She does her utmost best confronting our kids with Danish TV (we live in Holland), so I understand a bit of what the author is on about. I was initially surprised as well. Truth is, it _is_ entertaining! But most importantly, once you get past the absolutely amateuristic way things are shot (hey, the kids don't care, why should you?), there's a lot of dep…

Here in Australia we get a mix of US and British kids shows (on ABC Kids, have no idea what is shown on commercial channels), and its trivially easy to pick the US ones because they are dripping in morals, lessons, and such (and are also terrible).

I've started describing it to people as: British shows are designed to entertain first, and perhaps kids can learn something, whereas the US approach is THOU SHALT MAKE SURE CHILDREN UNDERSTAND RIGHT AND WRONG!.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#39

Post by tankenmate »

erelde wrote: post #15
crististm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the same account, electrons are imaginary as well. Edit for the naysayers: quantum effects too...

There's proof of electrons... Your screen. edit: there's also proof of quantum effect in the real world.

My favourite one is that Mercury is a liquid at room temperature. It should be a solid, it doesn't form diatomic molecules in gas form, and it has far lower melting points and electrical conductivity; largely because it doesn't share it's valence electrons easily due to a mixture of relativity and quantum effects.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#40

Post by arethuza »

lintiness wrote: post #20
arethuza wrote: post #5

"Supreme Being is not only imaginary" I was immensely proud when my son at 4 years old decided to stand up in his pre-school class and point this out to everyone.

i've never met a more evangelical (from the greek) crowd than atheists.

I'm pretty sure I'd never had a discussion with him about whether god exists or not. I'm certainly not evangelical about my atheism.
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