Welcome back to school! I hope you all had a good Spring Break.
*unanamous groan*
I know, I know. Mega Fighting Bots and all your other favorite computer games are good as dead now! ...I should know. I was fired from the game design staff because of it! ...That's why I'M back here as well.
Student: Our lives are over! The digital embodiments of our childhood are gone, never to be seen again!
Teacher: Very poetic! I'm impressed! And speaking of poetry, I have selected a new poem for us to read today.
"I'd rather be playing on the computer."
"I'd rather be playing video games."
"I'd rather be on my smartphone!... If those things were ALLOWED here!"
Not surprising in the least. You're just like all the children in the 60's, who wanted nothing but to stare at televisions all day... Children like Mr. Mike Teavee!
"Mike Teavee?! Like that kid from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Island?"
"OMG I LOVE that island! I miss it SOOO MUCH!!"
"Yeah, those lil' oompa loompas kept singing songs about all those crazy kids on that island!"
"All except Mike Teavee! How did HIS song go?"
Let's find out RIGHT NOW! For today's poem, Written in 1964 by Roald Dahl, is an exerpt from the novel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"... The very book that Poptropica's Chocolate Factory island was based upon!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl, 1964, pages 137-141
The most important thing we've learned
So far as children are concerned
Is never, never, NEVER let
Them near your television set!
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They'd loll and slop and lounge about
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor).
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotized by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk!
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still
They don't climb out the windowsill
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink
But did you ever stop to think
To wonder just exactly what
It does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What USED the darling ones to do? How used to keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY... USED... TO... READ! They'd read and read.
They'd read and read and then preceed
To read some more. Great scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wonderous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens and whales
And treasure islands and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars
And pirates wearing purple pants
And sailing ships and Elephants
And cannibals crouching round the pot
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what could it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How the Camel Got his Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost his Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
It's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole -
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
...That big long poem is certainly something to think about in this day and age, isn't it?
*BRRRRINNNNGGGG!!*
Oh, look at that, we're outta time! Class dismissed! We'll be studying another poem next time, so see you then!