Parental Guidance on Films that Sooth the Cradles of Filipino Children
Fevruary 14, 2015
“Cinema is a medium that can translate ideas.”
David Lynch
The world of children surrounded by toys, amusement and other accessories ornamented through the affection emanating from their respective family members yield significant values that constantly cradle their needs.From the unselfish environment that house their youthful interests, are amazing mutual learning springboards which adults habitually overlooked for regarding them as plainly plastic monstrosities thatare soon to be outgrown without considering any significance at all. It is a parental point of view underestimating the capacity of celluloid arts as strong component of learning among young generations. Filipino community or not, this perception exists among majority from the world’s families.
Among these kiddy stuffs are movies that are often ignored by adults and even parents who see these as temporary satisfactions of childhood fantasies. But if an adult cares to figure out their importance by dealing with these things they call as euphoria, it would be a rewarding lifetime discovery that will continue to thrive as a part of judgmental capabilities regarding the human growth of a child. Most of these films adored by children undefined by majority of parents are from Walt Disney which surface in varied forms of presentations. They can be animated or actor-performed films that are academically advantageous.With the use of these continuously produce films that cater mostly to young children, lots of favorable effects could be observed when parentsrecognize these as pedagogical tools apart from entertainment purposes of which they are primarily made.
Firstly,in terms of contemporary language learning outside or inside the classrooms; they replace the traditional approaches of teaching literature where language is the essential tool to comprehend. They aid in reading comprehension when they are presented after or before reading the passages that represent stories.Meaning, these Walt Disney movies can aid reading comprehension when films are in forms of motion pictures before they read the stories in printed forms or vice versa.
Secondly, they substitute books which are propelled by the auditory and visual elements thatenhance visual, auditory, oral and even the writing skills.
Also, no Walt Disney film ignores the family values which are deeply considered and modeled for children’s constructive entertainment as seen through their thematic contents. Every movie’s story is produced with the incorporation of wholesome themes to condition and expose growing children withnumerousquestions emanating from their growing mind’s inquisitions.
Moreover,this type of films contains dialogues laden with vocabularies that enrich variety of understanding among second language viewers. Vocabularies that widen their language explorations are introduced. Young attentive viewers usually use the words regularly when they understand the meanings of the words .And as growing children with keen memories, learning what they hear could be strongly retained and are strengthen through constant use making it so easy to be manipulated in the communication process.
Furthermore, this type of film builds the interest of a child to deal with art for the development of human growth which are considered learned skills being sufficed and advocated by the findings of Child Psychologyaccording to a research reviewed and edited by psychologist R. Y. Langham from the Association for Natural Psychology. To them,”Children’s films leave remarkable marks on emotional, cognitive and social development.” Their discoveries pointed out that “thecharactersof Walt Disney films are often well-developed. Many children watch these movies over and over again until they memorize the dialogues and songs” which elucidate learning by conditioning. They further stated that “these films comprise heroes and romantic fantasies” by citing “Cinderella who’s being rescued by Prince Charming can meaningfullyinspire a female’s psyche, whichinclude hercapacity to construct appropriate decisions in terms of an adultrelationship;” a matter that elucidates critical thinking development.
Additionally, Natural Psychology’s findings reveal favorable points through the employment of quality made films. In some of their numerous factual findings regarding films, creative activities are produced .They found out that whenchildren are engaged in creative activities like drawing and painting, these improve their moods and increase positive outlooks about life. These activities help children concentrate, offering them with wholesome, educational and recreational activities free from violent and/or sexual overtones, conditioning their peace of mind and self-esteem. The art being naturally developed in them also helps advance self-respect and enhance their cognitive potentials. The art progresses their abilities to analyze and reason. Art can be used as a form of mind cure or psychotherapy. Art therapy is very effective especially to children who possess great love in art. To them, art may help children develop certain life skills like skills that aid towards being needed to be self-sufficient adults, and with high coping skills. Also, art teaches children learn how to develop their abilities to analyze and reason.Young children often enjoy creating their own little art masterpiecesas encouraged by the visual images that they see.
Some of these remarkablefilms produced by Walt Disney are popularly known published works for children’s literature by world’s renowned writers like Snow White; Grimm Brothers,The Adventures ofPinocchio; CarloCollodi,Bambi, A Life in the Woods; Cinderella; Charles Perrault, Treasure Island; Robert Louis Stevenson,Kidnapped; Robert Louis Stevenson, Zorro; Johnston McCulley,The Swiss Family Robinson; Johann David Wyss,The Lost Ones; Donald G. Payne,The Princess Diaries; Meg Oliver Twist; Charles Dickens and Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up; J.M. Barrie, among other numerous produced films to the contemporary times.
The parents and teachers’ roleson children’s viewing
The role of parental guidance is a family affair. You don’t need to be a mother or a father to perform parental guidance to children. Any responsible elderly member of the family who has the ability to judge right from wrong can render parental guidance to a child. It can take place alternately at home by members of the family who find quality time with children. It is a process done by viewing together with a child to answer innocent inquiries through any form of motion picture that require pre-adult viewing in order to screen,recommend and approve what is suited for young minds considering their age, level of comprehension and interests .It is a commitment to be taken seriously in paving children’s behavior which unconsciously promotes children’s intellectual growth. It is a role that gives kids answers to their innocent inquiry to differentiate between fantasy and reality and a time to deal with on what occurs in a child’s amusement stage.
By engaging with this home activity, children do not only learn from what they view as recommendedby elders. Elders learn too, if only they find time to seat with children and immersethemselves with children’s entertainment world. These media may have been created for young minds but with all the elements like music, scenes, themes and plot, constructive foreign languagedialogues forming the whole syntax of these media, emerge a component that may trigger adults’minds to learn beyond expectations for discovering that something is deeply and significantly embedded in the film which a matured audience can only perceive to be beneficial.
Undeniably,while kids absorb the motion picture’s messages according to their extent of understanding, parents or elders learn too beyond what is perceive by the young minds. A parent whodevotes time for this may find itas a wholesome experience. These wonders in children’s world can favorably take place,if only careful selection of the media are administered by parents through the Walt Disney movies that are globally known as quality-produced films.
However, parental guidance for watching films for child’s growth and development shouldn’t only be applied at home. This process should extend in children’s schools where the elders to take the responsibility of parental guidance are the teachers. Responsible educators in children’s schools find time to prepare springboards for teaching utilizing sanctioned guidelines in procuring movies as inputs for instructions. A teacher should remember that the film is not the lesson but rather a medium to step -in in order to open a particular learning content which attracts the interests of the learners. To ensure quality learning, the teacher then is expected to apply the practical rudiments of parental guidance.
Contrary to the favorable findings by studies conducted about Walt Disney movies, there are evidence that child-based movies have become significantly more violent in the contemporary times due to the presence of constantly changing technology, to address this problem, there is need for parents and teachers to devote more time in planning, recommending and guiding children as they indulge in film viewing for instructional and entertainment purposes never to forget that parental guidance doesn’t only apply to films but also to other forms of media like website and television contents which young children are exposed to.
To recapitulate, quality made films from Walt Disney can yield maintenance, acquisition, conditioning, development and influence of sanctionedvalues among children as viewers. At early age, children should be conditioned on the distinction between what is right from wrong; between appropriate and inappropriate norms. Values formation is a great factor to consider in all areas of learning which controls and avoids human capacity to create problems that may endanger the existence of the finest things humanity expects to be in of which world’s prominent film director Martin Scorsese says in his Jefferson Lecture in Humanities duringthe National Endowment for the Humanities in 2013at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.. “We’re face to face with images all the time in a way that we never have been before; I believe we need to stress visual literacy in our schools. Young people need to understand that not all images are there to be consumed like fast food and then forgotten—we need to educate them to understand the difference between moving images that engage their humanity and their intelligence, and moving images that are just selling them something.” And if we are to consider his lines, it boils down to saying that values are preserve through weighing and considering points from what children hears and views. This is anaccountability thatteachers and parents should do in order toachieve worthwhile purposes in dealing with these celluloid materials.marvinwacnaglidawan@gmail.com.
