Kid Nation: A New Take on Pork and Beans
"It's not even the place anymore; it's not even the conditions. It's the people that are getting on my nerves...it sucks!"
Rarely has a fourteen year old been so wise.
This week's episode ostensibly centered around garbage; not the vast wasteland of which this show is a decided contributor, but rather a real wasteland - the Bonanza City garbage dump. And it was disgusting. Filled with rats. "Squalor" is the word that comes to mind, and this garbage became the focal point for much of the first half of the show. How to get rid of it? Who would help? Where would they put it? These compelling questions were quickly answered when Zach, the ten year old who just last week unseated the infamous, universally despised brat Taylor, stepped up and organized the "pioneers" to haul the garbage a distance from town and bury it. Taylor and her sidekick Leila were assigned the job of helping, but they refused, citing that ancient and time honored excuse: "beauty queens do not carry garbage." Now there's a revelation!
When the council determined that Taylor should be punished for her refusal to help, she refused to be punished. Instead of carrying water from the well to the empty tank, she kicked over the bucket of water and retreated into her pageant queen defense.
This was really the issue last night: conflict resolution. Managing seemingly unmanageable situations and inhabitants of Bonanza City. And how the Council, for all its supposed authority, really is not equipped to deal with truly difficult situations.
DK, a reasonable and genuinely kind voice amidst the noise and chaos, tried throughout the episode to resolve the issues that continuously arose. But he was unsuccessful. Here again, Kid Nation purports to be offering kids a way to make a better world, but they never give these kids any tools to make a positive change. There was no conflict resolution, only conflict. As for the waterless tank, DK organized everyone to carry a bucket and go to the well, thus relieving Taylor of any responsibility. There were mutterings about pollution and recycling last evening, and even a stray reference to laundry that caught our ear - but they were nothing more than filler.
Pork and Beans, Bonanza Style.
Then came the challenge of the evening, the one after which the districts are assigned their societal roles, determined by winning or losing the task. And once again the kids were pitted against each other in a repulsive, mind-numbing task. Mike said it best:
"We were wading in 1600 gallons of baked beans and at the same time we were in there with thirty pigs in those beans. That is sick!"
Yes, don't adjust your sets. The object was to dive into an enormous vat of baked beans, avoid the nasty swine, and dig through the muck until you retrieved a tin can painted the color of your team. Now isn't that a great challenge? Isn't this the stuff of a better world? A society much greater than our own?
Oh, but it gets better. The reward for the group collectively retrieving 75 cans was, of course, a choice: massive amounts of fruits and vegetables, or two dune buggies and all the gas needed to power them. The kids had been complaining that all they eat are potatoes and biscuits, so the fruits and vegetables looked good. They are, let's remember, malnourished, unclean, unhealthy, and by and large unhappy. The lone adult, who shows up long enough to tease the kids with their weekly choice, put it to them this way: "Will you choose mother nature or fossil fuels?"
Yes, that's right - they chose mother nature. Hmmm...a reality show where kids prefer vegetables to dune buggies - definitely NOT a reality any of us recognize.
Here's the dilemma: at Safety4Kids we try to observe this show from the point of view of the health and safety of the kids. On that score alone, this show fails on many levels. We really are worried about their health, which appears to decline week after week. And when we hear the kids say that all they eat are carbohydrates, that the water is "black", that the area where they dump garbage is rat-infested, their lip sores appear to be permanent, and they are clearly sleep-deprived, we are concerned to say the least. And their emotional health - that's a huge concern for us.
Last night the clear leader of the group, DK, a very sweet fourteen year old boy who missed his family and was "frustrated" with the group dynamics, chose to leave Bonanza City on the cusp of winning the gold star. Guylan, his friend and one of the new Council members, convinced him to stay by telling him what he meant to the group. He stayed, won the star and in a few moments that finally seemed real on the show, DK cried and shared his feelings with his fellow pioneers and then his family, by phone.
But DK's frustration is our frustration: it's really not even the place anymore, although we loathe the conditions and are fearful for the health and well being of these kids; it is the people themselves that are now the problem. And these poor kids do not have the tools to deal with the conflicts, personalities and issues that arise in Bonanza City.
There has not really been one example yet of their success at building a better world; they are barely surviving the one they've got. And when that one adult shows up to present the challenge, he's condescending and annoying. The challenges are humiliating, usually revolting, and always degrading. What exactly are they supposed to be challenging, never mind learning? The group is not getting any better at dealing with each other or with the basic challenges of communal living and group dynamics. So far, Kid Nation is failing those kids. Let's not even discuss how they're failing the audience.
And please, please, can't they vote Taylor off the ranch?
(c) Natalia Kononenko. Image from BigStockPhoto.com
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: Kid Nation, CBS, reality TV, Safety4Kids
Rarely has a fourteen year old been so wise.
This week's episode ostensibly centered around garbage; not the vast wasteland of which this show is a decided contributor, but rather a real wasteland - the Bonanza City garbage dump. And it was disgusting. Filled with rats. "Squalor" is the word that comes to mind, and this garbage became the focal point for much of the first half of the show. How to get rid of it? Who would help? Where would they put it? These compelling questions were quickly answered when Zach, the ten year old who just last week unseated the infamous, universally despised brat Taylor, stepped up and organized the "pioneers" to haul the garbage a distance from town and bury it. Taylor and her sidekick Leila were assigned the job of helping, but they refused, citing that ancient and time honored excuse: "beauty queens do not carry garbage." Now there's a revelation!
When the council determined that Taylor should be punished for her refusal to help, she refused to be punished. Instead of carrying water from the well to the empty tank, she kicked over the bucket of water and retreated into her pageant queen defense.
This was really the issue last night: conflict resolution. Managing seemingly unmanageable situations and inhabitants of Bonanza City. And how the Council, for all its supposed authority, really is not equipped to deal with truly difficult situations.
DK, a reasonable and genuinely kind voice amidst the noise and chaos, tried throughout the episode to resolve the issues that continuously arose. But he was unsuccessful. Here again, Kid Nation purports to be offering kids a way to make a better world, but they never give these kids any tools to make a positive change. There was no conflict resolution, only conflict. As for the waterless tank, DK organized everyone to carry a bucket and go to the well, thus relieving Taylor of any responsibility. There were mutterings about pollution and recycling last evening, and even a stray reference to laundry that caught our ear - but they were nothing more than filler.
Pork and Beans, Bonanza Style.
"We were wading in 1600 gallons of baked beans and at the same time we were in there with thirty pigs in those beans. That is sick!"
Yes, don't adjust your sets. The object was to dive into an enormous vat of baked beans, avoid the nasty swine, and dig through the muck until you retrieved a tin can painted the color of your team. Now isn't that a great challenge? Isn't this the stuff of a better world? A society much greater than our own?
Oh, but it gets better. The reward for the group collectively retrieving 75 cans was, of course, a choice: massive amounts of fruits and vegetables, or two dune buggies and all the gas needed to power them. The kids had been complaining that all they eat are potatoes and biscuits, so the fruits and vegetables looked good. They are, let's remember, malnourished, unclean, unhealthy, and by and large unhappy. The lone adult, who shows up long enough to tease the kids with their weekly choice, put it to them this way: "Will you choose mother nature or fossil fuels?"
Yes, that's right - they chose mother nature. Hmmm...a reality show where kids prefer vegetables to dune buggies - definitely NOT a reality any of us recognize.
Here's the dilemma: at Safety4Kids we try to observe this show from the point of view of the health and safety of the kids. On that score alone, this show fails on many levels. We really are worried about their health, which appears to decline week after week. And when we hear the kids say that all they eat are carbohydrates, that the water is "black", that the area where they dump garbage is rat-infested, their lip sores appear to be permanent, and they are clearly sleep-deprived, we are concerned to say the least. And their emotional health - that's a huge concern for us.
Last night the clear leader of the group, DK, a very sweet fourteen year old boy who missed his family and was "frustrated" with the group dynamics, chose to leave Bonanza City on the cusp of winning the gold star. Guylan, his friend and one of the new Council members, convinced him to stay by telling him what he meant to the group. He stayed, won the star and in a few moments that finally seemed real on the show, DK cried and shared his feelings with his fellow pioneers and then his family, by phone.
But DK's frustration is our frustration: it's really not even the place anymore, although we loathe the conditions and are fearful for the health and well being of these kids; it is the people themselves that are now the problem. And these poor kids do not have the tools to deal with the conflicts, personalities and issues that arise in Bonanza City.
There has not really been one example yet of their success at building a better world; they are barely surviving the one they've got. And when that one adult shows up to present the challenge, he's condescending and annoying. The challenges are humiliating, usually revolting, and always degrading. What exactly are they supposed to be challenging, never mind learning? The group is not getting any better at dealing with each other or with the basic challenges of communal living and group dynamics. So far, Kid Nation is failing those kids. Let's not even discuss how they're failing the audience.
And please, please, can't they vote Taylor off the ranch?
(c) Natalia Kononenko. Image from BigStockPhoto.com
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: Kid Nation, CBS, reality TV, Safety4Kids
3 Comments:
I'm worried about their physical health too.
But last night's episode gave me hope in terms of their emotional health. DK standing up for Taylor and the rest of the group (including Taylor) realizing what they were doing to each other with all the drama because of its impact on DK.... it all gave me hope. I'm probably being naive but now I've become curious if this will be a genuine turning point for Taylor and/or the other kids.
DK winning the gold star was a good moment though I suspect he was tipped off on that; that his surprise seemed faked didn't change the sincerity of how much this meant to him. Nice to see a clearcut winner who totally deserved the star.
Regarding the veggies vs dune buggies..... while two weeks ago I felt their choice of the holy books over something fun was insincere, I did not think that was the case here. Yes, some really wanted those dune buggies. But after the greyness of their boring carb meals, those veggies and fruits looked like a candy store and probably tasted even better than candy.
(I have a lot of food allergies and I crave fruits for the same reason; you don't realize how great they are until you can't have them.)
Taylor's oppositional attitude and mouth drive me crazy. If I were her mom I'd want to crawl under a rock until this show was over...except that I'd be willing to bet that the mother is the reason the daughter is so nasty, so she probably doesn't even see it. Taylor is the classic antagonist, working hard to turn everyone's attention over to whatever she's doing no matter what.
I sure hope there aren't a bunch of on-the-verge-of-tweenhood 10-year olds out there applauding her.
This was the first week where I thought they should actually take the food over the toys. when you stop and think about it, can you imagine the amazing fights they could all get into over those dune buggies? And while I'm thinking about it, what about the safety factor on those suckers, too? Lots of kids get hurt in the ATV-type things when they go off-road.
But why is it that the kids are always being forced to choose between food and something else? That drives me crazy.
Reading this blog brought into clearer relief for me what this show is attempting to do, but failing miserably at. And the problem is that the focus, and the scale, is all wrong.
Perhaps in this day of deeply disillusioning politics, and innumerable American soldiers' lives being lost, and divisiveness marking our society, CBS thought, hey, why don't we turn to children to show us the way, to tell us how to make a better society, to give some glimmer of hope for our collective future.
Putting aside the glaring problem that children should not be put in that position anyway, shipping them off to a tv set, isolated from their families and homes, and, as this blog says, giving them no tools for coping or functioning properly or resolving any form of conflict, is most certainly not the way to do it.
If CBS really wanted to show children making the world a better place, why not keep it smaller and more local: non-manipulated miracles can happen on a daily basis in schools across the country, when bullied children stand up against bullies, or a girl rebuffs joining an exclusive clique, or a shy child finally finds friends to eat with at a lunch table. I don't condone reality shows being made at schools, but I use this as a counterpoint to the wholly artificial and ridiculous situations these children are put in on Kid Nation. Forcing children to act like adults, especially in the absence of any real adults, is a futile and unhealthy way to hold children up as the beacons of light for our futures.
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