We should be looking at the messages young students are receiving because university is a very important socialization agent for them and the messages they get about how to be good citizens they're going to carry with them," she says, adding that very little research is done on the specific content of the brains of leftist professors. "With the erosion of performance based standards in academia, I think it's becoming something that we need to be more aware of."
h/t to Anthony Watts, whose suggestion included something about Barney the Dinosaur and a level crossing.
There are shows with political agendas....Thomas sure isnt one of them. That there is a stratification of society in Thomas is more a reflection of the fact that it is British in origin.
So I guess we should ban Dickens because it shows the same thing. And she admits her daughter enjoys the show, talk about a parent missing the point. Better start setting aside money for public funded therapy for her daughter now, since it looks like mommy is about to eff her up with talk of neo marxist interpretations of Sesame Street.
Perhaps the Mickey Mouse Suicide bomber from Hamas TV is a childrens political message she would approve of? Actually, its more a reflection of a demand for the feminization of anything to do with children. That the market for Thomas the Tank engine is primarily boys, though not exclusively, seems to be lost on mommy dearest. Perhaps the shows creators and producers understand their audience far better than she understands her own child, or children in general.
She deserves to be held up to great dersision and laughter, as she is doing a great interpretation of the Town Fool.
She now becomes eligible for a Government grant.
Doesn't she? Or perhaps promoted to chair a new wonderful enlightened sociology-science project.
I wish this junk was an isolated incident...alas, it's not!
"Any attempt to break out of this controlled hierarchy to gain individual power, show initiative or dissent is met with punishment usually because it goes wrong","It also represents a conservative political ideology that punishes individual initiative, opposes critique and change, and relegates females to supportive roles," This she sees as conservative?? Give your head a shake lady! Your liveing in an upside down world.
"The female characters weren't necessarily portrayed any more negatively than the male characters or the male trains, but they did tend to play more secondary roles and they're often portrayed as being bossy or know-it-alls,"
Since her political views are a bit muddled together, I can only see this to be the reason for her discontent. She is a living example of the persons(trains) she is criticizing in the show.
Now it all makes sense! My son recently graduated with Mickey Mouse construction diploma from high school.Parents know nothing and he knows it all ...we can now blame it on Thomas!
And here all the time I was thinking it was the high school that taught him 'no work-no prob', promoted condoms and birth control,and ignored the rude behaviour.
Just not sure where his hate-Harper and hate- Harris mindset came from. Guess I missed that episode of Thomas!
Many years ago, my wife and I decided to home-school our children. In the early years, we were often asked questions like:
1) are you sure that is legal?
2) what about socialization?
3) how can you be sure that your children will be able to keep up academically with the other children?
Shauna Wilton represents the type of person who presents a paradox for my wife and me. On the one hand, Ms. Wilton's thinking is one of the causal reasons for our decision to home school our 7 children. On the other hand, Ms. Wilton's thinking is one of the reasons ordinary people no longer try to discourage us from home schooling.
On a related but off topic note: terminology is important. The term "public schools" no longer means what it once did. The term "government schools" is more appropriate.
Bravo, Brent Weston! Government schools, indeed; they are decreasingly public, meaning that they no longer cater to the broad academic needs of their students but increasingly to the activist social agendas of the lib-leftards and feminists at the Ministry and Board levels.
My husband and I did not homeschool our children, though thought about it many times. I was actively involved as a volunteer at my children's school and was constantly being a whistle blower on the crazy and sometimes destructive clap trap being taught in my daughters' classrooms.
As you can imagine, the Shauna Wilton types were infuriated by my "interference" in their school -- but not half as infuriated as I was by their interference with my daughters' education and their attempts to indoctrinate them with social engineering junk.
" A conservative viewpoint suggests people in power are there because of their particular abilities and their authority should be respected, she says, while a liberal bent favours a more equitable outlook and individual rights."
Oh my...An acknowledgement that liberals ignore competence as a job criterion.
It's a given that the degenerate left reduce every aspect of human existence to politics. They must politicize all human interaction sand institutions because the dogmatic left are mostly misanthropic sociopaths. Reducing human relations to pigeon-holed group politics on a simple 2 dimensional political spectrum is the only way these dogmatic leftists can make sense of the huuman condition to which they are so detached.
We see in this case "Shauna Wilton, an associate professor of political studies at the University of Alberta's Augustana campus in Camrose, Alta., analysed two dozen episodes and found a strong conservative political flavour to the show."
Translated from politicized left-speak into normal well adjusted average people's lexicon (human terms) this "news?" blurb essentially states that some ensconsed Marcusian left wing quack has been seeing Joe McCarthy peering out at her from behind every rock and tree and now (in this latest paranoid episode)sees political evil in a popular child's toy/story.
Those who escaped this kind of control freak quack social engineering in the iron curtain countries referred to it as "degenerate communism". That's what it is alright - degenerate logic and dehumanizing rationale - and we have a well entrenched network of degenerate leftism holed up in our University culture today.
Degenerate leftism, it's the cause of every dehumanizing control freak policy metastasizing our free society. Keep an eye open for it and invalidate it's practitioners credibility.
you gotta give ol' prof wilton some credit; she makes some damning points; for example, the show has the audacity to depict a world where "good citizenship is the ultimate virtue and episodes revolve around the morals of everyone having a role to play and the importance of teamwork and doing a good job"
Despite what Shauna Wilton thinks, people with brain can reprogram themselves and many do. Duller brains don't change much and remain with their childish beliefs which are usually socialist in nature. But it is in childhood that we toss tantrums when we find that life isn't fair. If we grow up we become conservative, because life is conservative, it has no compassion.
Dennis Miller and David Horowitz are two examples of Liberals who changed their world view and became conservatives. I personally know many everyday individuals who also have switched.
Can anyone name a notable person who has gone the other way? I have never met a conservative who went native regardless of the chanting, bribing and fear mongering.
It would be interesting to have a list of folks who defect from left to right and vice versa.
I have named two ... anyone else think of someone?
This lady reminds me of one of my major pet peeves with Television Commercials. Why is it so many of them make men out to be bumbling idiots. Most of us aren't, you know. In fact, most of us real men cook, wash, clean-up and do housework quite handily and without any damage to our psyche.
Politics like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I had often regarded "Star Trek" as leftist propaganda. But then, the writers created the "Borg".....so much for that theory.
Maybe a cartoon is just a cartoon.
The need to invent or perceive some sort of agenda in innocuous things is a sign of rampant paranoia in the left. Everyone is out to get them and the ACME logo seen in Wile E. Coyote cartoons is the proof. How can the left ever get true joy in life? Even claiming there are hidden agendas in variety of things causes them pain. What a miserable bunch of people.
Abe Froman: myself!
And playwright David Mamet.
Please allow me to point out how easy it's been for the leftards to hijack so many "public" agendas. I've been observing the slide for years, in my perspective as a former leftie and a stay-at-home mom -- connected, by the way.
I decided to stay home with my kids, not because my husband and I could afford it -- we couldn't -- but because, knowing what bilge was coming down the tubes at my kids' public schools, I wanted to keep a close eye on what was happening in their classrooms day by day, not to mention spend a lot of time with them when they were small.
I got an eyeful and an earful and, fortunately, being like a dog with a bone, I didn't let go. I asked awkward questions, I monitored the course content, I wrote critiques of said-content, especially when the schlock wasn't even on the curriculum; in short, I made a regular nuisance of myself. I was also one of the only parents who ever went on field trips and was glad to be available with my ear close to the ground to see what was going down -- not to mention be able to monitor the safety of my kids and the other students in their classes.
There was lots of crap going down, which I would talk to my kids about -- and their friends, who often used our house as a meeting place and soup kitchen at lunch time!
My observation and experience was that most parents had no idea what was happening in their children's classrooms or schools. They thought the school and classroom were in a time warp, back to the world they grew up in the '50s and '60s.
Were they ever wrong!
So, the schools have had a field day indoctrinating our kids to their lib-left-multi-culti-fembo-GLTB agenda. Because, essentially, no one's home, most parents are in the workplace from 9 to 5, our educational ministry and boards have been making social activist hay out of parental inattentiveness.
Most parents have not been watchmen on the watchtowers, thus the marauding of the hearts and minds of our children who are not able to defend themselves. For too many generations, we've left the care of our children to substitute caregivers -- or no caregivers, the myth being that anyone, or no one, can bring up a child -- or, as Hillary the Clinton alleges, "it takes a village ..."
I always want to ask, "What village are you talking about, Hill?" The one where you're standing in the doorway watching out for Chelsea and the other kids in the 'hood? Or the one where you've transferred that responsibility to substitute caregivers while you go downtown to make 100 times their salary?
Sometimes I think we're no better than the Mayans who threw their kids into the fire. At least they weren't subtle about it and didn't pretend they weren't doing it.
batb:
but not half as infuriated as I was by their interference with my daughters' education and their attempts to indoctrinate them with social engineering junk.
Much could be said about this type of thing. Perhaps it will suffice to state a little axiom I once overheard about the difference between the left and the right.
The left views citizens as assets of the state; the right views citizens as clients of the state.
batb - Shirley you know that it was the Canaanites and possibly the Phoenicians who went in for child fire-sacrifice. The Mayans were more into ripping out the still-beating hearts of their victims (I'm given to understand that they were very in tune with nature, though).
P.J. O'Rourke's line re. "It takes a village to raise a child" was: "The village is Washington. You are the child."
Am increasingly a fan of home-schooling; good for Brent Weston.
Abe Froman @11:24 - I'd be interested to know about examples of serious people - i.e. not obviously insane or idiotic or sleazy or hoplessly frivolous - who have gone from Right to Left in a big way. I can't think of one. If anyone is even interesting (like Hitchens, say), the change always seems to be towards the right.
Don't miss the point. She is no doubt becoming a strong contender for a slot at the AHRC and CHRC or some other similar boondoogle NGO.
She must have been watching the original BBC effort. Surely she has no complaints about the PC version from PB in the US.
Abe Froman @ 11:24 a.m.: “Can anyone name a notable person who has gone the other way? I have never met a conservative who went native regardless of the chanting, bribing and fear mongering.”
From right to left (wrong)? How about that turncoat and sycophantic toady, David Frum?
What a maroon!
I think Oriana Huffington too—and possibly Christopher Buckley, who supported Obama in 2008.
There have been a couple of political cases of right to left and those are Keith Marin of Vancouver Island and Belinda Stronach of Toronto.
Both defected from the Conservatives to the Libranos, but it was right at the point where it looked like the conservatives would not ever get into power and they would never get their just desserts of a cabinet post. Belinda got hers briefly then quit. Martin is still scratching his head in the liberal back bench.
These are not the sorts of defections that are valid. I am talking about a real change of heart and mind.
Whoops, it’s ARIANNA Huffington.
There’s also the estimable Senator Anne Cools, who used to be a LIBERAL! She was appointed by Trudeau. She’s a committed Christian—wears it on her sleeve—and is a fine conservative. (Unfortunately, she disagreed with PMSH and was kicked out of the Conservative Caucus: its loss, I’d say.) The feminists (she used to be one), Liberals, NDPers, etc. have treated her abominably since her defection a few decades ago.
lookout - Arianna v. Oriana would make my day.
Professor Wilson forgot to critique the anti-environment message propogated by the whole evil concept of "railways". Clearly, Thomas the Train contributes to Global Warming. Moreover, the implicit shots at the chubby Toppam Hat are clearly a tacit jab at the obese community, which is not only prejudicial, but a human rights violation. Furthermore, the fact that some trains are slower than others demonstrates a complete disregard for the social contract: we are all to be equal. Ultimately, Thomas the Train is anti-Earth, anti-Obese, anti-humanist garbage that should be taken out and shot for the good of mankind...I mean humankind...I mean peoplekind.
Prof. Wilton could find herself in for a rude
surprise if only she knew how the railway culture really operates. Shrouded in mystery and designated as an essential service railways operate in the real world not as paternal fiefdoms but as paramilitary organizations. You have the commander in chief at the top and then various echelons of management down the structure. Employees in all departments are required to be familiar with operating manuals pertinent to their field of responsibilities. Make a mistake, fail to follow orders or step out of line and you will be disciplined.
While the old railway barons are long gone and Sir Topham Hatt is nothing more than a caricature of a bygone age, the fact remains that the industry has a rigid structure that started way back when. Probably the reason that there are few women characters on the program is that many railway occupations are menial, wet, dirty and cold and not very attractive to most women. Prof. Wilton may also care to ponder my wife's lament about the railway lifestyle when she exclaimed in frustration, "What's wrong with your union? I was in the military for 10 years and we had more rights than you do!"
If the good professor wants her daughter to get exposure to a more realistic rail life metaphor she should consider renting the old Ernie Borgnine flick, "Emperor of the North". It makes Thomas the Tank Engine look like, well, a kids show.
"Passengers stranded when modern-day trains fell victim to the freezing weather have been rescued by the crew of a steam engine."
Thomas, to the rescue.
We chose to homeschool our kids, as well. Kudos to you Brent Weston. I don't know why so many people trot their kids off to government schools when there are many other options.
Our kids are now aged 19, 22 and 23. My husband died when our youngest was 4. I had to go back to work. Hardly ideal, not easy but ever so worth it!
p.s. - at the risk of being tiresome (a risk I brave, fearlessly, on a regular basis, yes you're very welcome), I have always thought that any political attempts to screw around with children's programming were intrinsically idiotic. I knew that even when I was a little kid. Really. Children simply do not watch cartoons, or read books, or make sense of anything the way adults do. Ideological martinets are particularly useless at understanding the idiosyncratic way children think. Being intellectual obsessives, and basically totalitarian, they cannot understand that most adults are indifferent to their agendas and obsessions; and small children are busy creating their own worlds, which have nothing to do with the mental landscape of Shauna Wilton.
So, Shauna... ummm.... Leave them kids alone!
While this "Thomas" thing IS upsetting, it is after all, a British production, and free of the oversight of our HRC's.
The true scandal, committed right here on Canadian soil, and ignored by the authorities for 25 years, is the treatment of the animals in the Canadian childrens' show,"The Friendly Giant"!
PETA should be outraged!
For those here who don't remember this fascist show, let me recap; "Friendly" lived in a castle,and had only two friends,in spite of his name, Rusty the Rooster, and Jerome the Giraffe, a pair of modestly talented musicians who jammed with Friendly on occasion.
The scandal IS; Friendly kept Rusty in a BOOK BAG that hung on the wall near the window! Rusty was imprisoned in a dark,cramped and draughty cotton sack, and only let him out when the Giant wanted to "jam"!
And Jerome! Jerome was never invited in to the castle but lived his entire life freezing outside in the cold Toronto winter! He was summoned by a demeaning signal known as a "whistle", and always responded immediately, no doubt in fear of punishment, by thrusting his head through the window!
Jerome stood outside with his head through the window and jammed while Friendly was warm and cosy inside!
When the session was over, Jerome was once again banished to the far reaches of the wintry castle grounds, and Rusty was again imprisoned in the cold, dark, draughty book bag!
These poor animals suffered for the entertainment of fascist Canadian children,and NO ONE cared!
Canada should hang it's head in shame!
All of the vices Ms Milton attributes to conservatives are actually the hallmarks of communism and other totalitarian governments- conformity, hierarchy, punishment for personal initiative, downtrodden workers, wealthy 'controllers' reaping unearned benefits, punishment for criticism, etc. Then I read that she is a political 'science' professor. So, of course, she is unable to objectively evaluate conservatism.
BTW, in some careers it is necessary to have a hierarchy and well defined roles -medicine, military, pilots. Are female nurses victims of conservative fundamentalists by being required to defer to doctors? Heck, union boys rigidly and jealously defend their work turf and seniority rights from their brothers. I'd bet that even egalitarian professors like herself do not tolerate insubordinate underlings or students.
The fact that she sees conservative monsters lurking behind every door is a reflection of her university twisted mind (liberal arts, anyway).
melwilde: "She now becomes eligible for a Government grant."
Eligible for? I'm utterly confident that she received a govt. grant to do *this* "research."
Please don't let her see the stories I write for children on my blog.
A young bear lives by herself and she is not old enough to do so.
A young dragon changes into a boy to have adventures with real human boys.
I have a couple of dump trucks and diggers and they don't have any feminine counterparts.
They also do not have any morals hidden in the story.
They are simply for enjoyment.
Would she want them gone from print simply because children like them?
I think she grew up in a home where imagination were absent and now she wants imagination gone along with the fun and adventure of being a child.
Just the thoughts of a grandma
Speaking of the children being exposed to the propeganda horrors of Thomas, she says,
"Eventually these children will attain full political citizenship, and the opinions and world outlook they develop now, partially influenced by shows like Thomas, are part of that process."
I ask, what was the color of the sky in the world she was raised on if the opinions and world outlook she proposes now, were influenced by the environment she was raised in. Methinks the views she has were influenced by some faculty of "Women's Studies" in her 20's, rather than television in her pre pubescent youth.
I too fear that she is on her way to being funded to produce harmful anti-social propeganda or to qualify for some position in an NGO that does that in a big way.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
grandma
give us the address of your blog.
gramps cal2
Black Mamba: "It takes a village to raise a child"...: "The village is Washington. You are the child."
LOL! How true.
Leave it to a leftist to critize a a childs characterization of the real world of how a rail way operates safely. (Or for that matter any large organization.)
Operating a railway is not about freedom and creativity, it's as a person commented above , about doing yer job in a understood, safee, efficient, repeatble way. Kind of like driving a car on highway - slow cars to the right, everyone inthe same direction, and try to stay in your lane.
Certainly, I as a SANE person, I WANT to inculcate that to small children. "Yopu do your job, and let the parents take care of high level things.."
I'll have to rewatch all the episodes of Gumby and Mr.Peabody for commie-conservative ideals, just to be on the safe side..hmm
Here's how to indoctrinate your kids: whenever you give them a candy, take a bite out of it first. When they question you, tell them it's their "taxes".
I wonder what George Carlin would think of this view of the kids show that he provided the voice over for?
3w.imdb.com/name/nm0137506/
it's item 4 in the category 'TV actor'.
I *really* don't think you could describe George as a leftard. or right wing. or centre for that matter. but he accomplished something remarkable.
p.s. in 'Emperor of the North' in the scene where Ernest Borgnine the railroad cop is having it out with the tramp played by Lee Marvin, they did it on a moving train without stunt doubles. thomas the tank engine indeed.
Right ON! DMorris at 3:10 PM
You nailed it! That Giant was always a way too friendly... what with that chair for "two" to curl up in. And way he blew that flute... well...
coming soon
to a court room near you
the "thomas the tank" defence
this woman should not have children, she can't relate to them
One hardly knows where to start given there are so many erroneous points in her "analysis". SDA readers have no difficulty in seeing the article as crap and I don't know if there is one dominant pathology here or a whole collection of pathologies. What struck me was:
A conservative viewpoint suggests people in power are there because of their particular abilities and their authority should be respected, she says, while a liberal bent favours a more equitable outlook and individual rights.
There is nothing "conservative" about this viewpoint; this is a meritocracy at work. A lot of human organizations require a hierarchical organization for them to function effectively. Generally, the more urgent the problem that is being dealt with, the more rigid the hierarchy. I don't have any military experience, but have been part of cardiac arrest teams and trauma teams as a resident during my ICU and ER rotations and in these teams everyone has a clearly defined role and failure to execute that role can result in the patient dying. For low level members of the team there is very little scope for independent thought and even for the doctor who is running the show, standard protocols are followed first and if these aren't working then one tries something new as there is nothing to be lost at that point.
It has always struck me as odd that those who identify themselves as "leftists" are constantly pushing "equality" and "individuality" when every state run by them is an impoverished dictatorship with class divisions far more rigid and stark than existed before they took over. At this point they usually talk about "social equality" which generally means that the bulk of the population is equal in that they are equally oppressed and equally poor.
The difference in the "conservative" viewpoint is that the existence of a meritocracy is assumed to be essential for the operation of a society. People have individual freedom in that they can chose to join an organization (in which case they voluntarily become part of that organizations hierarchy) or they can chose not to join a hierarchically structured organization. In the latter case, they can go into business for themselves and they will either succeed or fail. Leftists seem to be especially intolerant of the concept of failure which they see as evidence of an uncaring society. True freedom requires failure as an option as eliminating the possibility of failure inevitably results in a curtailment of freedom.
The society that allows Shauna Wilton the freedom to be non-productive and write her idiotic rants is made up of people that are in positions of power because of their particular abilities (doesn't apply to the political class which can be best looked at as parasitic on society). This meritocracy allows for the creation of sufficient wealth that "academics" like Shauna Wilton can be paid to produce nothing of significance. In her case, it can be argued that what she produces is detrimental to society but it is up to universities to change their focus from absolutely useless departments such as "political science" to real science. Real science is not "inclusive" since it requires both adequate intelligence and a lot of work to master the subject. From what I recall from my university days, "political science" merely involved showing up in class and being able to regurgitate the profs rantings in essays without really anything of any substance being accomplished.
Abe Froman: "It would be interesting to have a list of folks who defect from left to right ..."
Try Andrew Klavan.
http://www.andrewklavan.com/index.php
Oh for the day of Warner Brothers' Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour.
Cause and effect.
That's what kiddies need to learn.
Cause, effect, and consequences.
With classical music in the back ground stimulating the brain like gravy does on a rare slice of roast beef, and a side order of whirled peas.
Gramps here is the blog to a few grandma stories.
hope nobody gets upset with it being here.
no profit no registering just stories for children to enjoy with out having to spend money on books.
http://storytimegrandma.blogspot.com/
thanks.
you will double your hits with the link to Kate.
try to link to Kinsella , he lives in a complete fantasy world .
Just proving both sides have their total frothing nutters.
The right had the fruitcakes declaring Harry Potter some kind of anti-christ...
Yes, the whole fricken world is nuts. I just wish their side weren't all on the public teat sucking up tax dollars. At least our nutters have the good grace to do their idiocy for free.
A must see: Andrew Klavan's brilliant and brilliantly funny "Happy Spots", the left's euphemism for the cloudy tissue in your lung x-ray, (aka, the spread of Muslim jihad).
http://pajamasmedia.com/andrewklavan/
Speaking of shows with political agendas, I heard this woman being interviewed on CBC a week or two ago. I don't remember which program, but I am 100% certain it couldn't have been on one that a "right wing agenda".
What a bizarre idea of conservative values this person has, I would described those values as socialist. Conservatism is all about to challenge and be challenged. Resepct of the individual is a hallmark of our creed, sorry no, a requirement.