10-07-2007, 12:35 PM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment...557624.ece
Last week the esteemed Science Museum held its annual awards for brilliance and announced that the best toy of the year is a £29.99 electronic and magnetic building kit that lets children choose from a range of 40 experiments.
Called Electro Mag, it can be used to construct anything from a simple light switch right up to a complex lie detector. I daresay it might even be possible for your son to attach electrodes to his sister’s ear lobes. And give her a whole new hairstyle.
The judges said the toy was easy to use, good fun and educational. And that’s lovely. Very Just William. Exactly what these ragamuffins need to stop them scrumping apples.
Anyway. Guess what. Immediately after the announcement was made, half the nation’s youngsters rushed to the nearest toy store where they spent roughly twice as much on a video game called Halo 3, in which a tough young space captain called something like Clint Thrust rushes about the universe kicking aliens in the throat.
I would dearly love, at this point, to launch into a tirade against stupid video games, and how their graphic violence is poisoning the minds of our precious children.
But I love them. I spend hours chasing my kids around nuclear power stations, laughing hysterically when their arms and legs are blown off by imaginary hand grenades.
Of course, it would be nice if we sat round the fire playing Monopoly but, for two reasons, this is never going to happen. First, it’s not 1956 any more, and second, why would my kids want to spend the afternoon (and most of the rest of their lives for that matter) pushing a top hat round London when they could use the time to put a sniper’s round in their dad’s left ear?
Of course, older people say that Monopoly brings families together. True enough. But so does Nightfire and Gran Turismo and Die Alien Scum. And it’s not like Monopoly is all about peace and love is it?
The only problem with electronic games, so far as I can see, is that while they are huge fun, kids don’t really learn anything. Other than how to drive very fast through a crowd of Cylons while firing a 50 calibre machinegun.
etc ;p
Last week the esteemed Science Museum held its annual awards for brilliance and announced that the best toy of the year is a £29.99 electronic and magnetic building kit that lets children choose from a range of 40 experiments.
Called Electro Mag, it can be used to construct anything from a simple light switch right up to a complex lie detector. I daresay it might even be possible for your son to attach electrodes to his sister’s ear lobes. And give her a whole new hairstyle.
The judges said the toy was easy to use, good fun and educational. And that’s lovely. Very Just William. Exactly what these ragamuffins need to stop them scrumping apples.
Anyway. Guess what. Immediately after the announcement was made, half the nation’s youngsters rushed to the nearest toy store where they spent roughly twice as much on a video game called Halo 3, in which a tough young space captain called something like Clint Thrust rushes about the universe kicking aliens in the throat.
I would dearly love, at this point, to launch into a tirade against stupid video games, and how their graphic violence is poisoning the minds of our precious children.
But I love them. I spend hours chasing my kids around nuclear power stations, laughing hysterically when their arms and legs are blown off by imaginary hand grenades.
Of course, it would be nice if we sat round the fire playing Monopoly but, for two reasons, this is never going to happen. First, it’s not 1956 any more, and second, why would my kids want to spend the afternoon (and most of the rest of their lives for that matter) pushing a top hat round London when they could use the time to put a sniper’s round in their dad’s left ear?
Of course, older people say that Monopoly brings families together. True enough. But so does Nightfire and Gran Turismo and Die Alien Scum. And it’s not like Monopoly is all about peace and love is it?
The only problem with electronic games, so far as I can see, is that while they are huge fun, kids don’t really learn anything. Other than how to drive very fast through a crowd of Cylons while firing a 50 calibre machinegun.
etc ;p
