learning with toys

I always thought toys weren’t just for the kid’s fun. But that they’ll somehow fulfill a certain educational need (even the dumbest ones) and put basic practices in the child head.

1 December 2003, by Mortimer

I also thought it all was really machist:

girls were getting used to cook and take care of babies
boys were ready to build, drive and all the "do-it-yourself" stuff

Kids are taught to go with the future task the actual society gives them. But that was ok for me, it has always been like and girls are now starting to really emancipate and some "real guys" (well drawn by their "real dad") do love cooking.

What frightens me much, is the toys I discovered yesterday: Logo printed ones!

Kids can now have fun arranging things with the fake Bosch screw drivers and girls will boil fake water with Tefal fake boiler.

But hell, what is horrifying is this whole set of McDonald’s toys!!! what will kids learn with that?

Perhaps they’ll learn how to fit well in the system, but how will they do by learning food value with an happy meal? being obese is not actually well fitting. Then, perhaps, they’ll just learn to sell mcdonald’s food and prepare their future summer work; that’ll be seriously genius.

But I really think that more than advertising, the Logo companies are now selling us their Logo so we do influence our children! But I’m confidant, no good parent or "real daddy" will want to buy these for they children.

Date of online publication: 1 December 2003
last-update: 1 December 2003
Forum messages 2
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P.S.

It’s a chance actual parents are intelligent and will not spoil their child to avoid hearing their cries.

2 Forum messages

> learning with toys
1 December 2003 11:34, by iiome

Children get more and more attentive to small details and they perfectly know logos. When they want shoes, they know what brand is trendy and i’ve even read a report saying that some children used the swoosh (Nike) instead of a tick to answer multiple choices questions. Children are brands prime target.

Children just want to reproduce what’s in the adult world. That’s why boys play cops & robbers or even play military wars. It’s true that using logos on small toys is a bad idea, but we should feel more concern about what’s wrong in our adult society, so we won’t have be horrified by the reflexive children’s world.
- > learning with toys 2 December 2003 10:29, by Mortimer
  
  I do really agree that the children do know what is a trend and what is not. They’ll surely be more happy if they can go out in the last Nike outfit.
  
  What I do not agree with is that these Logos do make a difference for a 3 years old child that will play to cook. Children can generally play with anything and have a *Lot* of fun with only paper boxes for example. They just want to play.
  
  It’s sure that if you buy a playstation to the child, he will mind the games titles. But for simple fake real word tools like the kitchen or the screwdrivers, it does (should) feel the same when playing whether or not there is a company Logo on it (Perhaps kids will want a good toy trend (playdo, etc...), but will they make the difference if it’s written Bosch or Hoscb on it?).
  
  The problem I want to raise is not that children are not aware of what is a trend. I’m sure we were and that the new generation is even more aware of these things. The problem to me is that *big Logo companies* do use toys to introduce their Logo to the smallest and are not fighting evenly with other companies as they sell their Logo in other sectors than theirs.
  
  But the main problem is the society as you mention it. I really wanted to put some irony in my Post-Scriptum: Why are parents becoming dumb and why are they buying such *intrusive* toys? The new parent generation cannot stand in front of their children, they will give(BUY) them everything (what about this poor child, which parents are unemployed but that has the full Nike outfit?).
  
  The actual problem is the separation between the actual parent generation and their parents. This could seems odd, but in older times, grandparents were parts of the child education and would give the parent advice they got from their own parents. In our days, grandparents are just for the holidays when the parent don’t want to see their children anymore; Parents do not know that they can let the child cry, that it could be a whim. They are not anymore able to ear cries, so they give the child a lot of presents, food, etc... and the new child generation is spoiled and obese.
  
  they’ll be a lot to say on this.

6V8 - Production of my Mind