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Last Saturday afternoon, I spent about an hour playing with a neighbor’s 2 year-old daughter-an adorable kid. She was also speaking albeit in just phrases. She could recognize colors or so her mother thought. Where is white? (She points to red) No, no. The the other white. Okay, how about blue? (She still points to red) Seems like its her favorite color (I would discover this later).

We started playtime with a bag of Lego blocks, some blocks were as large as my hand-a move to reduce instances of toddlers swallowing the small parts. I remember playing with with smaller ones when I was a kid. The smallest ones were smaller than a pen cap. Probabaly one of the reasons I grew up tinkering with all of my other toys, including the dolls. Granted that some of those claimed to be able to walk with you (the kid) and they didn’t deliver, so I took some of them apart and ‘discovered’ why they wouldn’t. Anyway, that’s a story for another day.

While I was playing with Mei-mei (her real name is Esmeralda, don’t ask), her mom was telling me what she likes, what her favorites are, and all of those kiddie things. Then, she mentioned Barney. Eww… Sorry kiddies, I never liked Barney. What could you possibly like about a purple dinosaur?!? I grew up more as a Sesame Street Kid and a Batang Batitbot, but never did they have phosphorescent animals and an extinct one at that. Most of the other recent shows feature adults and kids at play-school and make less use of puppets or in the days of Jim Henson, Muppets. Those were the days… a good mix of humor, culture, learning about history, friendship and generally exposing kids to ‘nice’ stuff. Now there’s a lot more of the ‘naughty’ in the shows and some kids inadvertently get to watch these shows.

The Pope, Benedict XVI, had delivered a message to the media people back in 2006 about the need to be responsible for what they show and broadcast. The original message is archived in differrent languages.

“Technological advances in the media have in certain respects conquered time and space, making communication between people, even when separated by vast distances, both instantaneous and direct.”

He said that while “This development presents an enormous potential for service of the common good,” that “…daily we are reminded that immediacy of communication does not necessarily translate into the building of cooperation and communion in society.”

He said that it is a must for “today’s media to be responsible - to be the protagonist of truth and promoter of the peace that ensues.”

Pope Benedict stressed that “Accurate reporting of events, full explanation of matters of public concern, and fair representation of diverse points of view must, then, always be fostered.”

He particularly highlighted “The need to uphold and support marriage and family life….precisely because it pertains to the foundation of every culture and society. In cooperation with parents, the social communications and entertainment industries can assist in the difficult but sublimely satisfying vocation of bringing up children, through presenting edifying models of human life and love.”

I didn’t stay long to wait for Barney’s show to finish. I still cringe at the thought of a purple dinosaur prancing around and teaching kids on TV, but if some of my nephews and nieces have gathered and learned good things, then they must be doing something good.