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Programs that dispel everything you learned in Anthro 101
Barbara Ruth Campbell (campbell@I-2000.COM)
Tue, 12 Mar 1996 19:47:44 EST
Just a quick note to everyone. Has anyone else besides Andrew been
watching the really hokey programs on NBC that basically dispel
EVERYTHING you ever learned in Anthro 101 and trashes everything
you learned in Prehistoric and/or Classical Archaeology?
Is anyone out there watching afternoon or Saturday morning cartoons
to see what fantasy writers are projecting into the minds of your
kids? I happen to be entranced by Disney's "Gargoyles" but then
I also like Jim Henson's fantasy films too BUT have any of you
bothered to tape them to watch CAREFULLY? The Disney writers are quite
ingenious managing to connect all kinds of "archaeological" sites
to magical beings. They even had one character get inside one of the
pyramids and envoke the spirit of Anubis into a giant statue.
BUT, like I said, just 'cause I like richly drawn fantasy settings
and well thought out SciFi/Fantasy storylines, doesn't negate the
fact that kids are being bombarded with explanations for everything
except those that are grounded in long dusty years of research.
Have any of you who teach out there thought of handing out a questionnaire
to your students to find out just how much "fantasy" they've absorbed
rather than assuming you're working with blank slates open to discussions
of evolution, archaeolgical techniques and scientific rigor much less
the uncertainty of years of research ending in no definitive findings
at all instead of what most young minds have learned off TV that everything
is the result of unseen supernatural powers?
Mmmm?
Ah, for the good ol' days when I could just lay back and watch the "Smurfs".
Barbara
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Barbara Ruth Campbell, Ph.D. campbell@i-2000.com
Westfield, New Jersey 07090
"Sensitivity to the role of paradigms in our perception can be
an important tool in problem solving. Once we know that all our
problems cannot be solved within the frame of a curren paradigm,
then it is sometimes possible to solve a problem by reframing its
terms" - Schwartz and Ogilvy, 1979.
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