How is Early Childhood Education Affected By the Study of Visual Culture?

For today's youth, visual culture is everywhere. My four year old knows how to navigate a touch screen device to find angry birds, netflix and know how to play a variety of games. We try to balance the digital entertainment with hands on-screens off play. Too much immediate gratification limits creativity and problem solving. Kids need to experience boredom and figure a way out of it on their own. I think back to when I was a kid and how often I was completely bored out of my mind, and my mother would respond with, "Only boring people get bored honey." It used to drive me crazy, now I understand. There are some amazing digital learning resources, but playing outside in the dirt has so many rewards that can't be simulated.

What are your impressions of Walt Disney films and characters and stories? Did you grow up With them? What are your memories of Disney as a kid? What kind of messages does Disney send kids?

As a young child I grew up with Disney like most of the universe. I was a princess for Halloween one year and I had plenty of barbies. My parents were pretty cool though and let me be a tomboy at the same time. I was often mistaken for a boy growing up, played electric guitar and played with microscopes and telescopes. I turned out fine, with what I would say average body image issues which probably had more to do with MTV than The Little Mermaid.

I enjoy the critical discourse around Disney and totally believe that if we had less stereotypical role models in the popular culture and the toys we had our kids play with, they might grow up very differently. There's nothing wrong with pink, and love a good romance story, but Frozen is still ultimately a story about poor rich white princesses growing up "alone," in a house full of servants, books and teachers. Not too far a leap from the mermaid who gave up her voice for legs to kiss a boy she'd never had a conversation with. Being conscious of gender, cultural and racial stereotypes and having conversations with students and children, is a way to start kids thinking critically about the world around them and not to believe everything they see on the screen.