You know you're a hardcore writer when you spend a portion of Easter Sunday explaining the "catalysts" and "supporting characters" to a five-year-old.
But darn it, I was upset with the preschool show she was watching (Pinky Dinky Doo, I think is the title). For those of you who haven't seen this show, it's about a little girl who tells stories with some moral value like sharing or teamwork. And at the end of the episode, she reviews the story and quizzes the viewers.
This particular episode was about the girl and her friends entering a cooking show, and arguing about what to make. In the end, teamwork helped them to make a dish and it won the cooking show prize.
At the end of the episode, the girl explained that all stories had main characters. And she called the girl and her friends main characters, but then she also called the cooking show judge a main character. Why? The show was in no way about him, nor was it from his perspective. In fact he only appeared once and had one line. He was not a main character. He was a catalyst. Of course I don't expect preschool programming to teach children about catalysts, but if you're going to teach something then get it right. The people who WROTE that episode are WRITERS. Don't they know the difference?
Maybe it's unlikely that most preschoolers will retain this "main character" information anyway at the age of learning so many new things all at once, but it bugged me. In elementary school I constantly had teachers giving me writing-related information that was wrong or that had more than one possible answer and it set me back a few steps. If you're going to teach students about stories and writing, at least give correct information.
But darn it, I was upset with the preschool show she was watching (Pinky Dinky Doo, I think is the title). For those of you who haven't seen this show, it's about a little girl who tells stories with some moral value like sharing or teamwork. And at the end of the episode, she reviews the story and quizzes the viewers.
This particular episode was about the girl and her friends entering a cooking show, and arguing about what to make. In the end, teamwork helped them to make a dish and it won the cooking show prize.
At the end of the episode, the girl explained that all stories had main characters. And she called the girl and her friends main characters, but then she also called the cooking show judge a main character. Why? The show was in no way about him, nor was it from his perspective. In fact he only appeared once and had one line. He was not a main character. He was a catalyst. Of course I don't expect preschool programming to teach children about catalysts, but if you're going to teach something then get it right. The people who WROTE that episode are WRITERS. Don't they know the difference?
Maybe it's unlikely that most preschoolers will retain this "main character" information anyway at the age of learning so many new things all at once, but it bugged me. In elementary school I constantly had teachers giving me writing-related information that was wrong or that had more than one possible answer and it set me back a few steps. If you're going to teach students about stories and writing, at least give correct information.
