Re: [seul-edu] [Fwd: Debian-kids goals (draft)]: cartoon characters

[Ben Armstrong <synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, Thomas Tempé wrote:
> Here's where it hurts: favorite characters are commercial(tm), and I 
> don't think Disney(c) would give his success characters out for nothing, 
> just for the sake of making the world a little better.

Children are going to like that which they have been exposed to and
catches their fancy.  In our household there is no TV, no VCR, no DVD
even.  There are lots of books, lots of trips to the library, and lots of
play time both among themselves and with parents.  Play-time involves
coloring, drawing, story-making, reading, running around, making noise,
making plays, and so on.  As to our kids' "favorite characters", I cannot
think of a single commerical character that any of our kids particularly
likes.

However, not all households are like ours (nor am I suggesting that every
household *should* be like ours ... there are different approaches to take
that are likely just as successful).  My point is just that, if children
are being exposed to commercial characters through TV, movies, and so
forth, it will be an uphill battle to try to "adopt" something else to
replace them just because those characters don't map well into free
software due to trademark issues.  If we're striving to redefine culture
within the home, I don't think we'll find it that easy to do it through
our desktops.  We need to attack it at a more basic level.  In our
household, this is accomplished by regulation of the commercial "diet" of
our children.  What commercial exposure cannot be eliminated is discussed
with them to help them to form values similar to our own.

That being said, I don't think designing appealing desktops for kids
without commercial images is a fruitless effort.  For some children, this
will appeal to them very much.  As for desktops incorporating commercial
characters ... well ... I'm sure they'll flourish out there and I wouldn't
even object to providing pointers to them, for those who really cannot
live without them. ;)  But I'm not going to be involved in that sort of
an effort personally.

I guess in a roundabout way I've said yes, let's look for free images that
appeal to children.  But remember that cultural differences exist, and
households with Linux in them may also be full of commercial imagery that
will be difficult to escape.  And it may be that in such environments
children will judge Linux as "dull" just because it lacks their favourite
commercial characters.  So be it.  There's not much that can be done about
that. 

Ben
-- 
    nSLUG       http://www.nslug.ns.ca      synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
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