Edu-tainment

This crazy little show has the potential of getting me into a lot of trouble. I have watched it from the beginning and have enjoyed most of it with my kids at my side--and remote in hand, to pause and discuss as each episode warranted. We've had some pretty dang-good, uncomfortable-issue, parent-child teaching moments with this show. And plus, the music is great.

The Girl ask me yesterday if three of her friends could come over and watch the reruns of this all summer. Apparently their moms didn't want them watching it. I have since told her I am not interested in being the madame of the Speak-Easy of Teen Musical Theater TV. If their moms don't want them watching it, who am I to undermine another mom's wishes? These girls aren't my kids.

From what I can tell, these other moms don't want their girls watching this show because of the topical content. And I can understand that. One character is gay, one is pregnant, one is a bully and one is a mean girl. There is some (inappropriate) slang used just like in a real high school--even those high schools in happy valley. There have been two episodes that were fairly high on the sexually-charged scale. But for me, these have all offered a great opening for deep discussions and explanations from me, a parent, to my kids.

A decade or more ago kids watched Beverly Hills, 90210--a teen drama set in an totally unreal--at least to any one I knew--situation. Yet, there were lessons that could have been learned about teenage drinking, premarital sex, living life in excess, or how to treat your friends. The characters on the show were certainly the "what not to do" examples. But a sharp mom could have watched it with her kids and talked about what they were seeing, and teach them according to her values and standards what would be better.

When I was a kid, our family watched Little House on the Prairie together sometimes. Even in that pioneer setting, Laura learned some hard lessons that I could see applied in my life. Lying to parents, running away, faking an illness, grief and death, work and the value of a dollar were all topics that came up even in Walnut Grove. I don't recall my mom talking to me about every episode we watched, but I could tell if the prairie kids were doing something naughty just by the look she'd get on her face. It was a disappointed and "you should know better" face. I knew that look well; I saw it a lot.

Little House isn't on the air much, though I can sometimes find it in reruns on KBYU. 90210 is on again in a revised series, but the kids are still rich and there is still little to align their life to my kids'. But Glee is about a bunch of oddball kids who happen to all sing, who join their high school glee club and learn to care for and about each other. It is about a teacher that struggles everyday to teach them how to be the best person they each can be. And about how working through difficulties with support from friends and parents can make all the difference.

Is there too much sex on TV? Yes, of course. But have you ever studied the Spartans or the Greeks from old world history much? Is the language too coarse in the junior high and high schools? Yes, but it is still isn't as bad as what I heard, and for the most part the kids I know do pretty well in the toxic world we live in.

Here is a show with an overall uplifting and optimistic message set in a representative real-life, worldly high school full of real-life, worldly issues. My real-life kids can be guided through the toxicity and even taught some survival techniques by a parent who loves them and cares about their eternal welfare using this entertainment as a backdrop to my own values and beliefs.

But I can't do that for anyone else's children. It just wouldn't be right. But if you join us for a typical dinner table conversation, and it might just surprise you the touchy topics we tackle together.