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TELEVISION INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN 
by Cynthia Brian 

While at NATPE in the New Orleans, the premier trade show for television producers and executives, I paid special attention to information on excessive television viewing in children.  Some ideas are shared here.

We may argue about how many hours are considered "excessive".  We debate how much sex, substance abuse, and violence kids have to see before they internalize it and start to practice it themselves.  We seem to have crossed the line on decency, but fortunately TV is something we can actually control, unlike other social and economic forces.  Estimated averages range from 3 to 6 hours of TV watching each weekday with more on weekends.  This means that kids are actually spending more time watching TV than learning.  There is clearly a connection between the amount of TV a child watches and his or her school achievement. 

Studies indicate there are good reasons for parents to limit TV time for young children.  In adolescence, kids who watch lots of TV tend to be more aggressive.  Dr. Tom Van der Voort, a Dutch researcher conducted large studies of the relationship between  TV viewing and academic achievement.  Heavy viewers do not perform as well as lighter viewers which he attributes to what he calls "concentration deprivation", his term for a lack of attention span.  Kids tend to frame reality as it appears on TV.  Death does not seem final, violence is glorified.  When a child spends time reading, better reading skills will develop.  The opposite is true with television. 

To remedy the erosion of academic skills, researchers suggest that pre-schoolers' total TV watching be limited to 90 minutes, with 2 hours for older children. Of course, content matters.  Nickelodeon, The Learning Channel, Disney all have positive programming. It is important to remember that television watching is an important source of recreation.  It can bring us important information about the world and keep us entertained and informed.

Many of the negative effects of TV can be made positive by parents who discuss the programs with their children and ask questions.  For example, "How did you like that program?  "Could that happen in real life?"  "What would you do in that situation?”  Responding to current criticisms, most broadcast and cable networks now employ the rating system of S for sex, V for violence, L for language and D for suggestive dialogue.  While the problem of TV violence is not going to disappear overnight, we can work constructively to monitor our children's TV habits and be responsible adults.  We must also offer children and teens options in programming and choices in the media.

To help make a difference for youth, contact BE THE STAR YOU ARE^™! today.

Make a tax-deductible contribution to: 

BE THE STAR YOU ARE^™!  
PO Box 376
Moraga, CA 94556

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THE TWELVE JOYS of Inner Peace which will then be your Godly Gains and features of your EVOLUTION are:

1.) a tendency to think or act deliberately rather than out of fear based on past experiences.

2.) An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment. Remember the Zen parable of the monk who, falling off a cliff held onto a rock with one hand, then with free hand reached for a ripe strawberry and ate it, enjoying every moment?

3.) A loss of interest in judging others and maintaining bad will toward them.

4). A loss of interest in judging yourself or others, and interpreting your actions and theirs. Loss of interest in figuring out what their take on you was. More self-scoring to abandon. SCORING right/wrong is a big no-no. Everything you or they ever did was RIGHT. Those little pecadillos were a great learning experience. Let up on yourself and vicious self-scoring. You’re perfect. The truth is, you’re GOD in GOD SCHOOL. It’s OK to make errors. That’s why pencils have erasers.

5.) A loss of interest in conflict. You lose your team when you discuss things from opposing sides of view. AGREE with them.

6.) A loss of interest in SENSUAL gratifications, food, sex, cigarettes

7.) a loss of the ability to worry! Worry thought comes into head? Go ‘God and Me are one’ a few dozen times and trust what happened was the unfolding God intended.

8.) Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation. When you acknowledge, praise others, even if you have to lie like a rug, you affirm the good way they’re going, you become the motor that makes things go. They feel they’re worthy and do worthy things. AND BINGO, they DO!

9.) Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature. You will see that it’s YOU who is the MOTOR that makes things go, events happen, projects go, because you are SERVING the process. You will see that because you affirm the worth of others, they serve the process too. SELF LOVE starts to happen. What’s that? OK. Try this exercise. TODAY, shut your eyes, envison YOURSELF at the center of your existence. Feel how kind and gentle a person you are, yet how strong, how worthy. Feel the sorrow for what went wrong with total compassion for yourself. Do you feel your heart open, WHAMMY? Now, let that grow into JOY being you, KNOWING you. OK, try that one week from now after you’ve been practicing the MANUAL. You are going to THRILL in your own company, and your own, audacious projects!

10.) Frequent attacks of smiling through the heart. That smile is the open loving heart which starts with that self-adoration, where you really LOVE hanging with yourself, don’t crave others being along, where you laugh at your own jokes and how you see life and are zesty about YOUR daily doings! And when that happens, you share the ‘trip.’ You aren’t a bore. You don’t cut yourself off before you said it all, thinking ‘oh I’ll bore them.’ If you think that you WILL. You will never come across as multi-dimensional and people WILL forget you!

11). Increased susceptibility to kindness offered and the uncontrollable urge to reciprocate as this comes naturally to happy, tripped out people. Friendships are going to sprout up!

12.) An increasing tendency to allow things to unfold rather than ego-resistance or manipulating or acting from motivation and AGENDA. With this, the art of surfing the wave of life the way it’s going and trusting God, your heart/mind ideas and impulses and LIFE as a GENEROUS RESPONSE to those impulses because you now perceive that somehow ALL THREE OF THESE are YOU! You invented the EGO because you FORGOT you were GOD! Get to that cognition and it’s Magic wand time. Graduation day.

At this point, you will be in perfect balance and the ground for the future will have been laid. As they say, "Build the field, IT will come." All of what you work toward will come. No obstacles will arise to thwart you, associates, team members, deals and luck will come. The spell of addictions and energy-destroying habits will be broken. Your work will reflect your talent and perfection. Associates and Deals will come. The angels will protect you. Friends will support you. Business people in the marketplace will innately TRUST your clear vibes. New people will remember you. Tycoons who hear your projects, read your writings, jump on them. Fame and wealth will come. More important, you will then have the magic wand to create luck and solvency for people who inspire your compassion, interest and friendship and return it. That should make you happy!

Anita Sands Hernandez

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What's Wrong with Our Nation's Kids?
By Cynthia Brian

A new report reveals citizen's thoughts and ideas for change.  America's main worries about young people have shifted from drugs, violence and teen pregnancy to a broader concern about too many kids lacking a sense of right and wrong, respect for authority or responsibility for their actions, according to a report recently released by the National Issue Forums (NIF) Institute.

The NIF Institute, based in Dayton, Ohio, selected three locations across the country to release its report "Our Nation's Kids: Is Something Wrong?"  The NIF report was released in Chicago, Illinois and Charleston, West Virginia.

National Issues Forums bring together citizens from around the country to discuss challenging social and political issues of the day. Over the past year, hundreds of civic and educational organizations convened to discuss the problems of today's troubled youth. This report is based on the thinking of thousands of citizens in nearly 100 forums conducted in 31 states, including California. Research methods included forum observations, interviews and pre-and post-forum questionnaires.

Overall findings pointed toward parents as a fundamental root of the problem with today's kids. According to participants, the role of parents is undervalued in this country. But because some parents are not able, or not willing, to spend adequate time with their  children, reversing the situation will take the support of our schools and the rest of  society, including a few specific things government agencies should do.

BE THE STAR YOU ARE^™! a not-for-profit self help positive programming media library is working tirelessly to bring better tools for living to groups in need of hope and inspiration.  This volunteer organization needs your help and contributions.

Send your donations to: BE THE STAR YOU ARE! ^™

PO Box 376
Moraga, CA 94556

Thank you for your support.

 Remember you can make a donation as a tribute or memorial for someone else.  All donations are 100% tax deductible.  Let’s work together to build a better tomorrow.

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THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL THAT YOUR PARENTS FORGOT TO GIVE YOU WHEN YOU WERE BORN AND/OR WERE GROWING UP.

HOW TO LIVE HAPPILY:

Daily, remind yourself of the basic laws of life, and practice them. If you will memorize these 12 simple rules or Dynamic Principles they will GIVE you the power to achieve luck, love, joy, wealth and power.

REPEAT these 12 laws to yourself frequently, whenever you think of NEEDING THE POWER they give. Gradually, you will ACCURATELY IDENTIFY moments of LOSING THE POWER and catch yourself when you’re irritated, out of control, thinking negative thoughts about you and your doings and in general, courting failure.

GETTING POWER is like Mozart practicing PIANO to one day, be Mozart. Love those daily scales, those five finger exercises as they give you the power! Soon you’ll be able to make life into a symphony.

Anita Sands Hernandez

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What Kids Need To Grow Up Well

BE THE STAR YOU ARE™! promotes, provides, and distributes positive programming in all media in order to help others live a life of meaning, happiness, and purpose. Because children are our future, we feel it is vitally important to spend the time necessary to assist them in developing into responsible adults. The majority of our time, efforts and resources are aimed at helping children and teens.  In May of 1999, the New York Times reflected on some of the necessary ingredients to raising well-adjusted children. We offer you these suggestions in the hope that you will implement these simple ideas.

 A U.S. children's advocacy group says too many young people are growing up today ill prepared to take their place in society.  Search Institute has surveyed 100,000 sixth to 12th-graders across the U.S. and found that the average young person has fewer that half of the 40 developmental assets necessary for healthy development. These essential ingredients range from family support and a caring school environment to personal power and optimism about the future. The Institute says the more 'developmental assets' young people have, the less likely they are to use drugs and alcohol, or to engage in sexual activity or violence. Only eight per cent of the youth surveyed experienced at least 31 of the 40 assets. The average young person experiences 18.

Here are the 40 assets listed by the Institute as crucial to a child's healthy development:

 1.      Family support
2.      Positive family communication
3.      Other adult relationships
4.      Caring neighborhood
5.      Caring school climate
6.      Parent involvement in schooling
7.      A community that values youth
8.      A useful role in the community
9.      An hour or more of community service work per week
10.  Feeling of safety at home, school and in neighborhood
11.  Clear rules and consequences at home
12.  Clear rules and consequences at school
13.  Neighbors who take responsibility for monitoring behavior
14.  Positive adult role models
15.  Positive peer influence
16.  High expectations from parents and teachers
17.  Three or more hours a week in music, theatre or other arts
18.  Three or more hours a week in sports, clubs or organizations
19.  One or more hours a week in spiritual activities
20.  Time at home, at least five nights a week
21.  Motivation to do well in school
22.  Actively engaged in learning
23.  At least one hour of homework every school day
24.  Cares about her or his school
25.  Reads for pleasure at least three hours a week
26.  Values helping others
27.  Values equality and reducing hunger and poverty
28.  Stands up for beliefs
29.  Tells the truth even when it isn't easy
30.  Accepts personal responsibility
31.  Shows restraint from sexual activity, drugs and alcohol
32.  Can plan ahead and make choices
33.  Has empathy, sensitivity and friendship skills
34.  Is comfortable with people of different backgrounds
35.  Can resist negative peer pressure
36.  Seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently
37.  Sense of control over things
38.  High self-esteem
39.  Sense of purpose
40.  Optimistic about the future 

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Winning a Share of Mind 

No matter what country on the planet earth, as of this moment, America owns the largest share of mind.

 ·         It owns the largest share of mind as the bully or in the kindest sense as the world’s politician.
·         It owns the largest share of mind as the greedy exploiter or in the kindest sense as a multinational business.
·         It owns the largest share of mind as a purveyor of violence, or in a kinder sense an exporter of action movies and television drama.
·         It owns the largest share of mind as a communicator and what it communicates is that having things is more important than doing things or put into a kinder sense that Capitalism solves all ills.

The Share of Minds America doesn’t enjoy

 ·         Every minute of every day ten acres of the Amazon Basin is cleaved to grow grass to raise cattle for hamburger meat for the American fast food market.

 The Amazon Rainforest, Borneo, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Congo Basin are the lungs of the planet earth, at the present tale of tree telling it will be all gone in another 20 years, but for small display areas for Eco-tourism.

 ·         America has no share of mind as a replenisher of the earth’s resources but only as the chief culprit in its destination.

 We must grow more trees, America, and only America has the power and the money and the communication systems to nurture and replenish and to create a share of mind among the world’s people the saving the world’s Eco-systems is in fact saving human kind.

 ·         America doesn’t enjoy a share of mind in the education of the earth’s people.  More than half the world cannot read or write. America herself has an illiteracy rate of 35% by the year 2020 it will be nearer to 45%

 Yet we have the capacity and the communication systems to teach every human on earth to think and to have the intellectual means to eliminate their own poverty.

We must teach the world to read, write, and count.

 ·         50% of all the world’s people will die of mal-nutrition and yet we have the capacity and the means to feed every hungry mouth on the planet.  America does not have a share of mind as a nation willing to feed the hungry except in an emergency.  American money enslaves the poor nations by committing them to debt they cannot repay and their people starve trying to repay these loans.

 We must cancel these debts and create the means to feed every hungry mouth. We must win the share of mind. Which says America cares.  Americans are caring people.

This is the journey; this it the task ahead.  It cannot be done by Government or decree, but can be done by people – by you and me.

Let us Begin.

Bryce Courtney

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