Thesis on "Teaching Our Kids to Kill"

Quoted Instructions for "Teaching Our Kids to Kill" Assignment:

A LITERARY ANALYSIS

Directions:

Below you will find 5 statements made by the authors of the book *****Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria Degaetano.***** You must choose 3 of the 5 statements to address. Below each of the statements are critical thoughts about the statement and related issues that the book addresses. You are to answer each portion of the questions.

Procedures and format:

1. Each statement must be numbered and on a separate piece of paper.

2. All 3 pages must be typed, double spaced.

3. You must write at least a full page of text for each of the 3 questions.

4. No smaller than #10 font.

Statements:

1. *****The entertainment industry and the rest of us cannot kid ourselves. Our children are being fed a dependable daily dose of violence-and it sells. Now, thirty years of studies have shown that this desensitizes our children to violence, and its consequences. We now know that by the time the typical American child reaches the age of eighteen, he or she has seen 200,000 dramatized acts of violence, and 40,000 dramatized murders. Kids become attracted to it, and more numb to its consequences. As their exposure to violence grows, s, in some deeply troubling cases of particularly vulnerable children, does the taste for it. We should not be surprised that half the video games that a typical seventh grader plays are violent*****¦.*****

a. Using this statement made by President Bill ***** in 1999 discuss why the television is *****not just a toaster with pictures anymore.*****

b. Support this with worldwide statistics from the book.

c. Utilize the resources from the back of the book to support or refute this statement.

2. *****Here*****s a scary scenario: A seven-year old boy described a deliberate attempt to reduce his own fear by identifying with a character in A Nightmare on Elm Street. *****˜It was easy,***** he said. *****˜I pretend I was Freddy Krueger. Then I wasn*****t scared. Now, that*****s what I always do and I am never scared.***** Since identifying with an aggressive hero can increase real-life aggression, this tactic for reducing fear is chilling indeed.*****

a. Using this statement from the book discuss how the more a young child watches violent television programs and movies the more likely it is that they will develop and sustain highly aggressive heroic fantasies for years to come.

b. Use the text and the resources to support or other sources (cite them) to refute this point.

3. *****There are three things you need in order to shoot and kill efficiently. From a soldier in Vietnam to an eleven-year-old in Jonesboro, anyone who does not have all three will essentially fail in any endeavor to kill. First, you need a gun. Next you need the skill to hit a target with that gun. And finally you need the will to use that gun. The gun, the skill, and the will. Of these three factors, the military knows that the killing simulators take care of two out of three by nurturing both the skill and the will to keill a human being.*****

a. Using this statement from the book discuss how video games much like a flight simulator can teach youth, as young as those in Arkansas during one of the first school shootings, to effectively kill, even if they have never fired a real weapon.

b. Discuss stimulus-response, stimulus-response as it applies to this statement.

4. *****A new ingredient in the media violence equation has come with the introduction of violent video games. Screen violence is toxic, whether on TV, in movie theaters, on video tapes, or in video games. But whereas before the children were just *****passive***** receivers of screen violence, with video games they push the button, click the mouse, and pull the trigger to initiate the carnage and killing. Of course, we all realize that the images on video screens are just that, just as they*****re not real on TV screens; but the sophistication of this technology is making it hard to tell, especially for children whose minds are not fully formed.*****

a. Based on this statement discuss current games that are on the market and why you think they may or may not fit this description of being toxic.

b. Use the resources to research parent watch dog groups and list those games, and why, they are considered bad for young children.

5. *****Don*****t just stand there*****¦do something.*****

a. Discuss what you learned from this chapter as a parent, future parent, counselor, or teacher.

b. What strategies did you learn to help you protect children from the media?