let the neurotics worry; I think it rocks
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/arts/t…
…The question of how CBS accomplished the feat of taking 40 young children into the New Mexico desert for nearly six weeks during the middle of the school year, allowing them almost no contact with their parents, in order to produce a television show has attracted attention…
I love the fact that in America this sort of thing is still possible.
(And, of course, removing kids from government schools for six weeks most likely had a beneficial effect).
August 18th, 2007 at 11:27 am
I find it interesting that people left their children in the hands of Television producers in the middle of the desert.
What kind of parent, leaves their child in the hands of what amounts to a complete stranger, in the middle of nowhere?
August 18th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Well, isn’t that what parents do when they send their kids off to summer camp?
August 18th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
In camp, you have generally a nonhostile enviornment, with I assume are responsible adults to look after them.
From the CBS website:
[quote]40 Kids have 40 days to build a brave new world without adults to help or hinder their efforts. [/quote]
Let me put it this way, would you leave your kid alone in the desert, with just a film crew?
August 18th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Eh, if it’s a typical ‘reality’ show, there’s going to be camera crews everywhere, and a script. It’s not like they were really left alone.
August 18th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
[quote]40 Kids have 40 days to build a brave new world without adults to help or hinder their efforts.[/quote]
Lord of the Flies, anyone?
August 18th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Let me put it this way, would you leave your kid alone in the desert, with just a film crew?
Depends on the kid. I have two at home about that age. One I would. His older sib – no way.
I assume there were assurances from the producers to parents about how things would be run, with a lot of legal paperwork. I’m going to assume the production staff had orders to step in if things were obviously dangerous.
As for six weeks away from school – poh. My kids follow the same regime that their public-school peers do. On occasion they’ll have four hours of work. Usually 2-3. You can make that up easily.
I would not send my kid but if he brought it up and said he did want to – and after we had a long talk about it and I ‘d looked into the deal – I’d let him go.
August 18th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Lord of the Flies, anyone?
I wonder about that. They’re not chucked into a howling wilderness – and they don’t come from British boarding schools. There appears to be an unstated but expected tradition of following the rules and setting things up in a democratic way that is going on there.
August 19th, 2007 at 11:42 am
My guess is that the “expected tradition of rules and democracy” are most likely at the prodding of the film crew. If you want to see how kids really would act, visit your local school – kids would form cliques/gangs, and the Alpha male would bully the rest. Remove the veneer of civilization, and we act alot more like chimps.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Even if it’s not blatant prodding, just having adults around that are expected to break up any fight and send people home would produce a very different result than putting these guys on an island by themselves.
August 20th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
And that’s why I so dislike Reality TV – it isn’t. One of my friends(now deceased) used to joke that they should have named “Survivor” as “Who likes me best”.
As for the kids, well, if the film crew simply didn’t interfere at all(no matter what), The kids would eventually pick up on that, and you’d see something ALOT more interesting.
I’m going to watch it, but I expect to be disappointed.