Monday, October 31, 2011

Who's afraid of the big, bad, doll?

I asked some children in my class at the beginning of this month what kind of things they were afraid of.  I got a varied assortment of things.  Bad dogs, toilet flushing, high places,  and insects all came before terrorists and burgles.  One thing that was mentioned strongly by about three fourths of my class was, dolls.  Yes, dolls.  "Dolls freak me out!  The ones that have eyes that open and close are the worst!  I can't even have them in my room or I won't sleep!"  On a hunch, I asked the class how many had seen a movie that featured dolls coming alive and murdering people.  Without exception, the doll-fearing children raised their hands.  The others, without exception, did not.

Now, each of these children are old enough to know that dolls do not come alive and murder people.  But common sense means little when eyes and ears have manipulated the imagination to fear something.  I asked them to think about their pre-doll-fearing days.  They were innocent to evil. They were innocent to an evil lie, to be true, because their hearts came to believe something that was not true, even when they knew with their minds that this feeling was absurd. Then they watched a movie that changed their perception to this innocent thing.

Then I asked them this question, "Are you going to ruin your innocence to something else this month, by watching some other silly October movie?"

2Timothy 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 comments:

redneck preacher said...

I asked 50 2nd graders if they believed in Spiderman. They all said they knew he was make believe. Later with head bowed and eyes closed, I asked again how many believed somewhere there was a person like Spiderman. Over 30 raised their hands. Almost all said they had seen someone die. They had on TV programs. Children cannot differentiate between reality and fantasy. This is why it is so much fun to play with that age kid. Anecdotal evidence but probably could be supported by science with the proper study.

Sarah Joy said...

Second graders are prime candidates for believing what they see, and are very vulnerable, with imagination well developed but the common sense not so much, but most of the kids with their hands raised were 10-12 years old. They think they are big, so they can handle it, and they don't want others to think they are wimpy, so they try out all those movies to prove that they're fine.