It is an obvious advantage in this discussion for you to try to distance (or as lawyers say, "distinguish") the two. I'm just in essence saying, "I see what you did there". It's completely obvious that coloring in someone else's art has something to do with art, despite the fact that it's imaginationally completely passive instead of involving active creation (that's my point, actually).
Sorry, I'm totally confused. Filling in line drawings on the back of a kids' placement is not art. It seems odd to me that anyone would believe it is producing art. It is a time wasting activity with potential fine motor benefits. Just like when the kid practices handwriting by copying down a sentence they aren't engaging in constructing a story.
If the issue is that they are being exposed to unattractive versions of art as a consumer I wonder how you reconcile that with having the child consume any kind of kid media, like Leapfrog that you mentioned, that is full of pretty poorly done unattractive art.
Maybe three hours a year?
I looked back at the previous discussion on coloring, and see I've partly confused you with PoppaRex, who was much more forceful in advocating coloring, so I'm sorry. [/quote]
Okay, thanks.
... which isn't the same as playing a strategy game, some of which are on computers today. When they are on computers, they can offer greater richness of detail; but in general playing a strategy game on the computer is no more harmful in terms of curbing creativity than, say, playing a game of chess. And here you're engaging in the same sort of fallacy as before (i.e. "Just because computers didn't exist in the past, yet children existed, there is nothing new and positive about playing on computers today").
Kid play is full of incredible richness of detail, if you aren't seeing that in the play of kids you know that is a red flag. I've known kids with highly detailed self created games and worlds that have operated for years at a time. What's happening with the computer isn't just playing chess, but the illusion that the child is engaging in imagination when they are acting as a consumer of a world, story, and rules created by someone else. It is also acting devoid of an integrated sensory and motor experience.
A child can practice flying a plane with software today, actually feel what it might feel like to look out of the cockpit (even engage with an enemy aircraft), etc., whereas almost no one ever gets that chance in the real world; that's just an example. I've provided others.
They get to feel someone else's simulated version of certain aspects of that experience. That's not the same as their own imagined version, nor is it the same as the real experience. I believe your other examples were things like having a battle or building a city - both of these themes are pretty common ones in kid play.
And you still haven't explained how playing a computer strategy game stunts creativity any more than playing a game of chess-- would it be ruling out the ability to imagine a night actually forking a king and queen at once?
Chess is a good example. If you play on the computer you play by the rules of the computer and only the rules of the computer. When kids play with a IRL physical chess set they may play according to the traditional rules of the game. That's always an option. Or, they may conceive something entirely new - what happens if we incorporate Lego people with super powers, what happens if we add an element of chance through incorporating rock paper scissors or a dice roll, what happens if we add bowling as a new game mechanic, what happens if alter the movements of the queen, what happens if we change the rules to make it so our chess game is epic and runs for weeks at a time. This process involves strategy, social skills developed through negotiating with playmates, experiencing and working with gravity, motor skills, physical space, etc.
This isn't to argue there is no value in playing chess against the computer. There's lots to be said for having an opponent at the right level always available. It is one experience though with a real chess set and playing offering a wealth of other experiences. It is good to know the difference.
