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Q&A WITH SIDNEY POITIER |
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Dear Sidney Poitier,
I am currently reading The Measure of a Man and it seems every page raises some sort of question or reflection for me, but one excerpt that hits home is page 6–7. I am a stay-at-home mom of two little girls and my 20-month-old loves cartoons. Of course once they find them, they do not forget them! Your quote, "We put our kids to fifteen years of quick-cut advertising, passive television watching and sadistic video games, and we expect to see emerge a new generation of calm, passionate, and engaged human beings." The next paragraph proceeds to explain the simplicity of your childhood and the benefits of this simplicity. What advice do you have for the parents of this modern world? Not only are our kids bombarded by technology, cartoons, computers and fast-paced happenings, but parents are as well, and before we know it, have we made bad decisions regarding what we allow our kids to be exposed to?
— Nicola Mildren
Dear Nicola,
Yes, in many instances, we have. The bulk of mainstream television offers children little more than useless information that they are not yet able to filter, not yet able to process. The steady hands of parents are crucial in preventing overload. Children need voices that will tell them about all the wonders that can be found in books. Voices that will help them fall in love with reading. Voices that will provide them with useful, age-appropriate information and, voices that understand and appreciate that almost everything a child would want to know is sitting on a shelf, if not at home, certainly, on one in a nearby library.
— Sidney Poitier
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