2.2 Coherent writing

• Do this on a large piece of paper so that your family history is clear.

Then tell the class about your family if you wish. DO YOUR FINAL PRODUCT ON A LARGER PIECE OF PAPER TO SHOW AND TELL.

Activity 4:

To be able to respond critically to text by evaluating writer’s point of view / question and weigh options

[lo 3.8.1, 5.2.3]

SOME READING TIPS:

Read the following passage TWICE:

• first to see in general what it is about;
• secondly to pick up the details.

THEN, read the QUESTIONS before you read the passage.

• This will mean that you read with intent, see?

Did you understand what you read?

Circle words you did not understand and look up their meaning in a dictionary.

Ask a friend or an educator about some of the meanings.

Write the meaning in the margin of the passage for future reference.

Is that harmless half-hour on the box really so harmless?

GILLE WEINTROUB examines the dirty washing that lies beneath the soaps.

PARENTS in the United States threw up their hands in horror when kids took to city sewers in emul

ation of the TV cartoon heroes of the day, the Ninja Turtles. In South Africa, even the children's programme on Radio South Africa felt obliged to warn young listeners about the noxious gases they might encounter should they take it into their heads to go under the city . . .

So nobody underestimates the power of the box when it comes to turtles. But what would hap

pen to the already embattled morals of society if our teen

agers began living their lives like Loving or spent their days like the characters of Days of our Lives . Many households come to a standstill between 17h30 and 18h30 while entire families watch what many adults classify as escapist television nonsense. But is it really harmless?

Di van der Merwe banned Loving and Days of our Lives in her home because of its effect on her 14-year old daughter.

“Lindsey began basing her attitudes on the activities of these two-dimensional people. She began talking American; her priorities became mixed up.”

But it was romance rather than sex that put the final nail in the coffin, as far as Lindsay’s mother was concerned. “Her major priority became achieving a romantic relationship with a boy. That’s why I banned it outright. She’s 14, and at that age they’re too young for sex. It’s the romantic issue that clouds priorities. Her education, social life and friends should be her priorities at this age, but Loving, Egoli, The Bold and the Beautiful as well as Generations tell her how desirable it is to have a romantic relationship with a member of the opposite sex.

Timing was also a problem.

Right at prime time in family life, she would be sitting “staring at the screen," complained Van der Merwe. “Lindsey did nothing until after 7 pm.”

Sex-educationist, RENÉ RAFF, is terribly against programmes like Egoli, Loving, Days of our Lives and all other soap operas because they glamorise deviant and promiscuous behaviour. But she does, albeit grudgingly, allow her children to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because its “goody vs baddy" moral formula takes the edge off the violence it portrays. “The soaps,” says Raff, “exposes children unnecessarily to issues which are not children’s issues. Children do not have the emotional sophistication to judge wrong from right. Adolescents may have better judgmental abilities, but they too are exposed to things in an unrealistic way.”