CM Yarborough Releases Statement on MOCA

[Metro Jacksonville]

CM Yarborough Releases Statement on MOCA



Jacksonville Council President Clay Yarborough releases his statement regarding the recent MOCA Jacksonville ordeal and a recent meeting held with MOCA on December 5, 2014.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-dec-cm-yarborough-releases-statement-on-moca

[pierre]

"Jacksonville’s moral climate" is handwank inducing

[JHAT76]

fyi

http://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/Why-to-Avoid-TV-Before-Age-2.aspx

Parents are often shocked when I tell them that pediatricians think it’s a bad idea for children to watch TV before age 2. Surveys tell us about 40% of infants are watching some sort of video by age 5 months, and by age 2 the number rises to 90%.

Early brain development
To answer these questions we have to return briefly to the child’s developing brain. Kids’ brains grow profoundly during the first 3 years of life, with the brain tripling in mass in just the first 12 months. The stimuli children experience during this period profoundly influence brain development. Images on screens behave in ways that differ dramatically from those in the real world. Because we’re all steeped in the visual language of screens, it’s easy to forget those differences until we think about them.

Imagine a ball in real life and a ball on TV. Infants are developing 3-dimensional vision. The world of the screen exists in 2 dimensions, so the ball is just a flat, shaded circle. If you roll a ball across the floor it proceeds in a single motion, slowing gradually until it stops. The same action on TV is broken up—you see the ball leave someone’s hand, then there’s a shot of it in motion, then a picture of the ball at rest. If your infant wants to grab a ball in real life he’ll lunge for it, grasp at it, or crawl after it. The stuff on the screen just disappears, to be replaced by other stuff; you can never get your hands (or mouth) on it. Infants may stare at the bright colors and motion on a screen, but their brains are incapable of making sense or meaning out of all those bizarre pictures. It takes 2 full years for a baby’s brain to develop to the point where the symbols on a screen come to represent their equivalents in the real world.

Because of this confusion, children up to age 3 learn better from the real world than they do from any screen, especially when it comes to language. They do seem to learn a little more if they’re watching in the company of a person who is talking to them about what they’re seeing, in the same way you would while looking at a picture book.

Where's the harm?
So sure, babies and toddlers don’t get anything out of watching TV, but if they seem to like it, where’s the harm? If a little TV is what it takes for you to get dinner on the table, isn’t it better for them than, say, starving? Yes, watching TV is better than starving, but it’s worse than not watching TV. Good evidence suggests that screen viewing before age 2 has lasting negative effects on children’s language development, reading skills, and shortterm memory. It also contributes to problems with sleep and attention. If “you are what you eat,” then the brain is what it experiences, and video entertainment is like mental junk food for babies and toddlers.

The problem lies not only with what toddlers are doing while they’re watching TV; it’s what they aren’t doing. Specifically, children are programmed to learn from interacting with other people. The dance of facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language between a toddler and parent is not only beautiful, it’s so complex that researchers have to record these interactions on video and slow them down just to see everything that’s going on. Whenever one party in this dance, child or parent, is watching TV, the exchange comes to a halt. A toddler learns a lot more from banging pans on the floor while you cook dinner than he does from watching a screen for the same amount of time, because every now and then the 2 of you look at each other.

Just having the TV on in the background, even if “no one is watching it,” is enough to delay language development. Normally a parent speaks about 940 words per hour when a toddler is around. With the television on, that number falls by 770! Fewer words means less learning. Toddlers are also learning to pay attention for prolonged periods.

Toddlers who watch more TV are more likely to have problems paying attention at age 7. Video programming is constantly changing, constantly interesting, and almost never forces a child to deal with anything more tedious than an infomercial.

After age 2 things change, at least somewhat. During the preschool years some children do learn some skills from educational TV. Well-designed shows can teach kids literacy, math, science, problem-solving, and prosocial behavior. Children get more out of interactive programs like Dora the Explorer and Sesame Street when they answer the characters’ questions. Educational TV makes the biggest difference for children whose homes are the least intellectually stimulating.

What you can do
Naturally, children learn more when they watch TV with a parent than if they watch alone. Content matters, a lot. All programs educate kids about something, but stick with ones that are designed to teach children stuff they should actually know.

Regardless of content, cap your child’s TV time at 2 hours a day. Remember, too, TV is still TV whether you actually watch it on a TV screen or on a mobile phone or computer.

To each their own I guess.  I am sure both my kids were exposed to TV pre 2 years old and both were very early readers.  As in ages 2-4 they just started reading.  We read to them a lot as kids but never had they had formal reading lessons.

That being said I THINK Yarborough was saying was that Director Polednik requests other individuals to make the environment suitable to her kids based on her own beliefs.  So basically how can she be like that for her kids but he not do the same for his.  You all probably already got the idea and I am sure it was pointless for me to type this.

Of course Yarborough went about it the wrong way.  Of course in my opinion not expecting some nudity in an art museum is idiotic.  Of course he needs to loosen up and let the city grow up.  As with visiting friends.  If you don't like what they do there, don't go.

[copperfiend]

Damage control at it's finest. Although I find it very odd that he would feel it necessary to throw in the little jab about the television. Considering the bully tactics he attempted to use, it is not even an apt comparison. If anything, this whole fiasco has allowed people to see Yarborough for what he really is.

[mtraininjax]

4 of the 8 posts by one person....I guess that while Yarborough has let it go.....

[ben says]

So over this thing.

Clay's an idiot.

Whose next?

[The Compound]

He needs to visit somewhere that is not Jacksonville, has he even been out of the state, or country, and to a museum out of the country? Art education? Does he need to borrow a book?

[tufsu1]

^ he went to London last month with the Chamber and Jaguars

[KamilahMerritt]

I have 6 and 4 year old boys. One thing I've noticed is how they often don't see what I see or react like I do, even when we are looking at the same thing. I haven' t eaten there with my boys yet, but, I'm going to make it my business to do so with them before this exhibit ends. I bet myself a good $5 that neither one of them will notice. That said, I agree with the tail end of Clay's statement. The COJ does have other issues to address. It is time to move on.

[IrvAdams]

I have 6 and 4 year old boys. One thing I've noticed is how they often don't see what I see or react like I do, even when we are looking at the same thing. I haven' t eaten there with my boys yet, but, I'm going to make it my business to do so with them before this exhibit ends. I bet myself a good $5 that neither one of them will notice. That said, I agree with the tail end of Clay's statement. The COJ does have other issues to address. It is time to move on.

Good point. Children don't react the way we do. It's the adults that criticize and judge, not the children.

[KamilahMerritt]

Now see... I said I agreed that it was time to move on... but then I read Dad's justifiably angry response. Clay made it personal. If he was man enough to bring something like personal parenting practices up in a public forum, he needs to be man enough to answer to Dad AND apologize as publicly as he offended.

[Redbaron616]

Of course, all those defending the said picture would be horrified if some artist actually put a Christian message in his art. Then the left would be the ones screaming to get rid of it. Funny how the left pretended to be anti-censorship but only as long as the message suits their perverted tastes.

[Demosthenes]

Wow.... When did Metjax get the Fox News tie in?

[Tacachale]

http://m.jacksonville.com/entertainment/arts/2011-04-24/story/work-visionary-artist-howard-finster-comes-moca-jacksonville#gsc.tab=0

Sunday, April 24, 2011
Work of visionary artist Howard Finster comes to MOCA Jacksonville
By Charlie Patton


Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville
The Rev. Howard Finster got his start as an artist late in life, but he still created 46,000 pieces before his death in 2001 at age 84. He often used popular culture as a way to get his sacred message across.

...