First Man on Moon

A recent study shows that 1 in 5 British schoolchildren think that Buzz Lightyear was the first man on the moon. Now, while his most famous saying is "To infinity and beyond!" he wasn't even around when Neil Armstrong landed. Of course, neither were the children...in fact, it has been more than 2 generations since those exciting times. The gap in their knowledge about historical events is somewhat disconcerting, but that's a discussion for another time.

I remember my parents waking me in the middle of the night so I could view the first moon walk. I sat mesmerised...and actually ran outside to see if I could see them! But these were the days when many programs were still broadcast in black and white...we only had three channels on the TV and they went off at midnight or before. You still had to dial your telephone and if you couldn't call someone, the telegraph was the fastest way to get a message out. Don't know about you, but at that time I believed that by 2010 we'd be travelling by time machine!

While technology has grown in ways and directions that most of us couldn't even imagine, it has, in it's own way, numbed our children to the wonder of imagination.
Knowledge and information is at their fingertips. They can find the answer to any question by simply going to any one of a number of search engines. Think about what kind of papers and reports you could have written had you had the Internet rather than the World Book Encyclopedia.

But back to imagination...they can view any event, look up any fact, listen to a book or read a synopsis...or better yet, in their minds anyway, watch the movie! I admit to being a lover of movies, they cannot be allowed to take the place of reading a book. Peter Jackson did a wonderful job of telling the story of "The Lord of the Rings" but any who have read these books knows that entire places, events and characters were left out of the saga. The fantastical images I saw in my mind while reading these books were a wonder!

It is my hope that we find new and creative ways to encourage our children to be not just voyeurs but participants in life. Instead of watching something happen, to run out and do it! I pray that as their brains are filled with knowledge, their bodies do not just wither away from lack of use. Let us help them build forts, explore creeks, climb trees, sail in imaginary boats and fight pirates. Buzz Lightyear is a great cartoon character...but he's not a hero!