Go Away, Freak and other Mixed Messages

In class one day, one of the little boys said to his classmate: “You’re such a loser!”.

I overheard him call his classmate that and I immediately called his attention on it. I asked him why he had said it and what it meant to him, and all he could tell me was that he had seen it in TV. He didn’t even really know what it meant, except that it was something you said when someone made a mistake. In this case, the classmate had dropped his snack box cover on the floor.

I explained to him how what he had done was wrong and I gave him a “sad face” mark on his hand to remind him not to do it anymore. Since then, I never heard him say it again. However, i got to thinking about how we adults give kids mixed messages when it comes to what is right and wrong. Take for example the local television show Agua Bendita. It tells the story of two young girls, born as twins but very different. One is a typical, normal looking child, while the other one takes on a water form when in dry land. Overlooking the impossibility of the concept, let me just focus on the behavior the grandmother teaches the young girl named Bendita. She teaches her granddaughter to call her sister Agua a “freak”. Granted that she is indeed freakish, I think it is a very wrong thing to teach children. Because of the show, calling others “freak” becomes an acceptable behavior. Yes, I know it is television, but I think there could have been steps taken to show that is is unacceptable and wrong. Throughout the series, I have not yet heard Bendita being reprimanded for calling her sister a freak.

Shows like this, as well as other cartoons that have characters calling each other stupid, idiot, moron, and the like with no reprimand or means of correcting these behaviors give kids mixed messages about what is right and wrong. For young children, being consistent and firm is essential in making sure they learn the right messages that will lead to better behaviors in the future.

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