14-02-2009
They're all complaining, writing to The Times; they, are all demanding for the last two episodes to be shelved.
Educationalists, psychologists,"children's experts" are all up in arms about Boys & Girls Alone. Well, what can I say? They must be right. Yes?
Am I the only person who thinks that this type of rarely televised event is a good idea. As a program, as an experiment or simply as a record snapshot of societys' children in 2008-9 is a good idea almost unquestionably I think.
Yes we can highlight some hairy moments and yes we can say there may well be some negative outcomes.
Nevertheless I believe the amount of positives for all involved and for all who observe are worth the chapperoned risks of the "experiment" and far outweigh the negatives.
In many ways if we are scared by what we saw happening it should wake us up to some key facts about the lives of children in todays society, which have been drawn out by the programme. The ways in which some of these children seem to be behaving would suggest that some of them have never properly (if at all) had free play beyond maybe closed after school care.
Yes they know how to shop and to reason quite well among each other, and they seem to know what they need to survive - the girls focused on less rules and buying food as priorites; while the boys made rules organised a law enforcement posse for a dawn raid and bought toys.
Much of what we have seen here truly mirrors the wider world of which they are still making sense of and trying to make sense of. If we are scared of what we have seen we all would do well to consider how our wider activities actually influence the younger ones.
Personally speaking the chapperones probably deserve a pat on the back for first of all taking on the role and for allowing as far as possible the children to do as much by themselves as is "allowable". The makers of the show and channel 4 similarly deserve some acknowledgement for being brave enough to bring us this.
EPISODE 3 & 4
By the time episode 3 and 4 were aired the furore seemed to have quitened; meanwhile the spectres of a camping trip and the girls moving in with the boys could have had the "concerned" even more "concerned". Nonetheless all who had an opinion should not be worried. The shows portrayed again some very big positives and primarily for me at least it all concluded somehow with a message that children and young peoples trips away (summer camps etc) are possible for teachers playworkers and youthworkers and that the rewards for children parents and workers would be immense.
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