KID’S (CATHOLIC) TV
I’m an old bachelor of 72. I figured that since I’m unexpectedly going to be teaching the Catholic faith to 5th graders after Mass on Sundays, it might be good to watch the kid’s TV on EWTN every weekday at 4 PM and get a feeling for ‘the minds of kids’. Previously in that segment of time I either listened to the radio or just concentrated on computer activities or reading.
It’s funny, because some of the TV seems, as expected, appropriate for kids below the 5th grade while other material strikes me as pretty grown up. Only a portion is just right for the 5th grade. I’m charmed by one juvenile program set in a school classroom which has a young teaching nun talking to a bright, eager little puppet-student named Lucy. Another program seems intriguingly close to regular TV programming, The Knights of St. Michael, which features a contingent of young men and ladies enlisted in a league to further the good and expose the evil in the world. They mount some faux TV segments which mimic such regular TV fare as news shows and celebrity interviews.
I kind of suspect that the public school 5th graders I teach don’t watch any of the afternoon EWTN TV I’ve been sampling. I’m planning to ask if any of them are also charmed by little student Lucy, but I imagine they are too grown up to find her interesting. They might identify to a degree with the Knights of St. Michael gang, but I imagine their heads are elsewhere.
What have I learned? I can see that subject matter is best presented in digestible bits in an upbeat and clear manner without a lot of subtlety. I see that the TV kids pick up what they are taught very efficiently, which I also have noticed during my experience with the kids in my class.
