The Channel One News Crew was here today to film a Y2K special to be shown on Channel One News In Middle and High Schools across the country in two weeks.

It was specifically geared to help kids understand the dangers involved with Y2K and why preparations are so important.

They got shots of the kids doing their chores with the livestock and all those farmy things foreign to the sidewalk monkeys.

The upshot is that this will have a very broad audience and help to get kids to understand that they, too, have to understand what is necessary to prepare properly.

Now, if we could just get Paul Davis to understand it.......

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 22, 1999

Answers

Hey at your place? Did you cover the bunji pits? :)

I heard someone say you were on national TV lately...is this since your telephone interview?

-- a (a@a.a), January 22, 1999.

If nothing else good comes of Y2K, maybe, just maybe, kids will learn how to work. I feel this is one of the biggest mistakes my generation and beyond (I was a product of the forties) has made. Kids are lazy. I taught for many years and most kids are just plain lazy... they want to be spoon fed. Parents, wake up and teach your kids how to work. Since families have come off the family farm, Nintendo rules. Kids want to be entertained. They want us to prove everything to them, instead of doing their own research. This is one reason why young adults today are waiting for proof on Y2K. They don't know how to dig into information and form conclusions... what a shame... Of course, this isn't true of ALL kids, just tooo darn many. Lets get them out of bed before 9:00 a.m. cartoons to milk the cow or goat before breakfast. Gather the eggs, help in the garden, grind the wheat berries.....YES YES YES... my grandchild will take on whole new characters, for the better (yes, I really do love them just the way they are but...) Abigayle P.S. Hey Paul, you didn't cuss once, good boy!

-- James Greenleaf (jgreenleaf@townsqr.com), January 22, 1999.

James: yeah it was interesting to see Madonna on Larry King the other night saying she forbid her kid from watching any TV. Don't know whether to call her a hypocrite or smart.

-- a (a@a.a), January 22, 1999.

Schools? Where did they find schools?

Teech said only too stoodents turnd in there homework. Out of 124.

122 had hugri dawgs woo ate homewurk.

-- TTF (seenit@ww2.com), January 22, 1999.

My highschooler 15 year old son just told me last week that they've discussed Y2K in class. I was taken aback. He said they discussed possible scenarios. Then the next day, I see on the CNN Headline News an interview with clip with the principal of an Albuquerque (sp?) school, saying they were planning "Y2K" days off in december next year, for safety reasons during the roll-over. He went over possible scenarios that could happen to his school, from lunch delivery service failures to power failures to staff payroll failures. The CNN reporter said that schools in Philadelphia were planning the same. My kids saw the clip and were...uh...happy...you know...like snow days off. I bit my tongue and managed not to go into my "y2k" rantings with them.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 22, 1999.

Chris,

Why discuss this in class when it was a "joke" in the Descend of the Union address?

Should the pupils not learn French instead?

-- TTF (seenit@ww2.com), January 22, 1999.

Times have changed TTF, wouldn't you agree? ;-) Different world here too, for sure. And they don't have a decent french teacher either.

Ils sont fou ces americains!

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 22, 1999.

Wow,

Here in Chicago Metropolitan Area...nothing. You would think this issue didn't exist.

Deborah

(there were a couple items around Jan 1 in Ch. Tribune...now silence)

-- Deborah the Prophetess (mediablackout@home.com), January 22, 1999.

Somebody made this proposal to improve a school program:

"Microbial warfare programs could be established as yet another program, in the search for the perfect program, to program the children of our nation in the never-ending quest to educate them. This program would eliminate the need to post signs, and pictures for those who can't read, in restrooms to Wash Your Hands after You Leave the Toilet. It would show them that after they rest, they might have dirtied their hands. They must be taught that what they can't see could kill them, or at least make them ooze pus. And pus always stinks.

Maybe the reenactment of BW I could replace the Civil War reenactment performed recently in high schools. To bring the Civil War alive for the students, and to goof off while the teacher goofed off as well, they hurled water balloons and paint balls at each other. This could give them the mistaken notion that shooting cannonballs at their brothers and sisters was fun for their forefathers. Since it was not, the reenactment of BW I could replace this historical water balloon-paintball hurling program. It could also be done in greater comfort since drenching each other in February is somewhat annoying, especially if you spent twenty minutes that morning coloring and spiking your hair."

-- fly . (.@...), January 22, 1999.

A puzzle is very puzzling until you have all the pieces together, a. The wording is sarcastic/caustic humor, and the story is brutal. I wish he would just hurry up and publish it.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 22, 1999.

Paul,

I hope the visit was more than a "gather some stock footage of Y2K kids" expedition. Did the Channel One folks interview you, or even better, your kids for their perspective on what Y2K and preparations mean now, plus the possibilities of the future?

I hope what your oldest son said when we visited is something that gets through to those kids who watch this. His comment was "This wasn't that way he envisioned himself becoming an adult". That's the message that needs to be gotten across to all the folks, not just the kids.

There's going to be a lot of "growing-up" done come a year from now. Paul, let's hope that this Channel One business gets the word out to some youngsters who can pull their parents heads out of the sand and get them to grow-up before it's too late.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 23, 1999.

WW ---- Interesting, that is just what my 18-year old said.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), January 23, 1999.

Answer to WW in Parenthesis:

Paul, I hope the visit was more than a "gather some stock footage of Y2K kids" expedition. Did the Channel One folks interview you, or even better, your kids for their perspective on what Y2K and preparations mean now, plus the possibilities of the future?

(Of course it was)

I hope what your oldest son said when we visited is something that gets through to those kids who watch this. His comment was "This wasn't that way he envisioned himself becoming an adult".

(LOL. My kids have lived in cities and here. they laughed at your comment that they 'did not envidion spending their life this way. They would not go back to a city for love nor money.)

That's the message that needs to be gotten across to all the folks, not just the kids.

( No it is NOT. We live a NORMAL life here. Peaceful quiet happy. Y2k or NO Y2k)

There's going to be a lot of "growing-up" done come a year from now. Paul, let's hope that this Channel One business gets the word out to some youngsters who can pull their parents heads out of the sand and get them to grow-up before it's too late.

(agreed ONLY on that)

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 23, 1999.

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 23, 1999.

Paul,

Glad to hear it wasn't just a footage shoot with no on-camera discussions. Gotta find a way to get a copy of that broadcast.

About your oldest's "becoming an adult" remark.I was remarking on how Y2K is impacting on his immediate 1999-2000 plans for college and those other "young adult" activities he mentioned he might not get to see. I guess I interpreted his remarks to mean that it's hard to base future plans on wholly uncertain events. I guess Y2K qualifies for that catagory.

I'm not saying that your kids don't face a "normal life", Y2K or no Y2K. You've got a regular small-farm family with a "normal American" rural family lifestyle. Your kids' lives may seem foreign to Channel One viewers in Manhattan, but not to us here in rural Pennsylvania.

BTW. How's the maple syrup?

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 23, 1999.