Show Homefront Let’s Talk 10 Crossword 11 jt I I The Herald Journal Logan Utah Monday We’re off to see the Wizard Ifyou go though April 15 9 1994 ‘I ’m sure that some of the most important growth and learning came from my involvement in high school sports and other activity programs’ — Merlin Olsen be sure to take the book By Gina Wickwar Because of my job I've been away from home for the last several weeks and so it was that on Easter Sunday evening I found myself channel surfing looking for something on the motel TV that would entertain me before I drifted off to sleep It was the usual television wasteland and I was just about to click off when I chanced upon Dorothy snuggled in her bed clasping Toto surrounded by her anxious aunt and uncle their three farm hands and the traveling medicine man She was once again vehemently protesting she hadn't been dreaming and assur ing Auntie Em there was no place like home Ah I sighed America's Easter parable The Wizard of Oz The movie I emphasize "the movie" because I'm a bit of an Oz purist Meaning I'm part of a group of people (admittedly a small group) who while fond of Hollywood’s rendition feel it distorts L Frank Baum's original concept to such an extent it’s really a different story altogether So when I ask people if they’re familiar with The Wizard of Oz and they nod and tell me they've seen the movie I know they haven't a clue It's not that the movie doesn't have its Ptwtoa by Mitch Maacarofrtarald Journal Members of the Logan High School Baseball Team while away a sunny afternoon A recent study found activities get higher grades and have better attendance rates students who participate in extra-curricul- ar good points I remember being completely dazzled the first time I saw Dorothy step through that sepia door into the lush Technicolored Land of Oz delighting in how well the scene cap- - When it pays to play tured Baum’s textual transition from the dull gray Kansas prairie to the colorful exuberance of Munchkinland Or how much joy I’ve had over the yean humming “If I Only Had a Brain” warbling “We’re Off to See the Wizard!" and crooning “Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in the shower The movie too is scarier than the book I still get chills when the Wicked Witch suddenly materializes on the rooftop of the Tinwoodman's cottage cackles dire warnings to Dorothy or By PhH hisses her threats to Toto Baum’s Jensen staff writer Wicked Witch is sinister but not nearly so melodramatic Still whatever its virtues the movie must be blamed for not being faithful to its origins Messing with a storyline isn't exactly an unknown phenomenon in If you want to get good grades in the classroom go out and play Or go out and cheer for somebody who is playing If you want to succeed at work after school spend time in school at play That's the central message of national high school studies Students who arc involved in Tinseltown but Hollywood reinvents endings at its peril Note the slim box office pickings of the recent Scarlet Letter in which saner heads did not prevail and we wound up with a “happy" ending Don't these people know their extracurricular activities get good grades in school and do well in life after school is over And the people at Mountain Crest High School who brought the findings back to Hawthorne? Or imagine how you’d feel if Hollywood had rewritten the ending to Gone With the Wind and Scarlett now convinces Rhett to clean up his language and remain with her after all? In Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Dorothy's adventures in Oz aren't a dream at all They really do happen So to children who are familiar with the book before seeing the movie the movie's ending comes as quite a shock Not to say disappointment I know Back in 1949 during the I was one of movie's initial olds who jumped those unhappy out of her seat in the front row of the Bijou wailing “But it didn’t HAPPEN that way in the book!" disrupting the Cache VMley say they suspected it all along “Intuitively we have felt this for a long time” said Mountain Crest Vice Principal Jack Robinson “We just didn't have the data” That data was gathered last or"sh(-i-0 j year by the National Federation of State High School Associations and dished out during an athletic convention in California last December Among other findings the data shows that: 0brnj The average high school dropout rate of students involved in extracurricular activities was 55 percent and nearly a third of schools surveyed had no dropouts among students in activities Ninety-si- x percent of dropouts were not in any activity Ninety-fiv- e percent of principals believe activities leach valuable life lessons and 99 percent says activities promote citizenship students who might otherwise Activities can reach ar entire theater before being shushed andor dragged out by a sheepish parent at-ri- sk The disappointment runs deep because old kmws the “dream" even a ar interpretation of Dorothy's journey of self discovery is a cop out When See SCHOOLS on Page 10 Dorothy “w akes up" and finds that her d and wise friends from Oz are really just some doofy hayseeds the message she and every other child are given is that the miraculous really doesn't happen It's that tries the classic parental to explain away every unexplainable wonder glosses over every magical courageous kind-hearte- put-dow- TV monitoring is enormous parental responsibility By Christine Bertelson St Louia n insight and debunks every mystical mise formulated in the mind of a child It conveys to children they can't really have fairy tale adventures they can only dream about them: it proclaims that children can't really be spirited and wild they can only be independent in the it sur- -- dreams-lt's :hs brother-telli- you there is no Santa Claus or the older sister pooh poohing the tooth fairy See OZ on Page 10 Commentary Post-Dispat- ng With the possible exception of Bart Simpson kids between the ages of 2 and 11 are watching a lot less television — 18 percent less — than they did in 1984 according to the latest batch of Nielsen research If you'se sat down with your kids at ip the last 43 say-rim-? & I have to watch Saturday morning cartoons you'll be overjoyed at this news letter-writin- g All congressional debate and network lip jtev hand-wringi- Tuesday Health: Sleeping disorders: Your worst nightmare service to the contrary most kids' TV is just as rotten as ever If however you assume — dumb that you are — that kids are grown-u- p watching less TV because they've figured out that mindless violent sexist trash isn't good for them you are wrong Kids have branched out to oiLcr icuff vkluxs cabh programs and computer games causing much consternation among the purveyors of aforementioned toys cereals etc Ha-h- a on them I say Still the bad news is that most of the 282 million kids in America still spend more time in front of the tube — a shocking average of 21 hours and 38 minutes a week — than doing almost any other conscious activity except whining Fortunately my kids have never made TV a major battleground I can take a modest amount of credit for this From appioximateiv the time they wcrc born I have limited their TV a day during watching to a half-ho- ur the week (after homework is completed) and rn hour and a half on week ends But most of the credit is due to that fact that we have one old TV set with a screen the size of a Kleenex and no cable My solution to the problem of screening the content of what they watch is cruder than the but effective If the girls are watching ip something I think is more than usually oflcnsive 1 sit down cheerfully next to them put my feet in their lap and make obnoxious remarks about the show until they leave the room Or I pull the plug Both methods work Features: 752-212- 1 |