Junk culture 'is poisoning our children'

"A sinister cocktail of junk food, marketing, over-competitive schooling and electronic entertainment is poisoning childhood, a powerful lobby of academics and children's experts says today.

"In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts call on the Government to act to prevent the death of childhood.

"They write: 'We are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions.'

"The group, which includes Philip Pullman, the children's author, Jacqueline Wilson, the children's laureate, her predecessor Michael Morpurgo, Baroness Greenfield, the director of the Royal Institution and Dr Penelope Leach, the child care expert, blames a failure by politicians and public alike to understand how children develop ...

"She cited research by Prof Michael Shayer at King's College, London, which showed that 11-year-olds measured in cognitive tests were 'on average between two and three years behind where they were 15 years ago' ...

"Jacqueline Wilson said: '...I speak to children at book signings and they ask me how I go through the process of writing and I say, "Oh you know, it's just like when you play imaginary games and you simply write it all down".

"'All I get is blank faces. I don't think children use their imaginations any more.'"
Telegraph (emphasis mine)

Tagged: education, children, health, television, internet