MAP is BACK! 

 

MAP is Gesher's after school enrichment program.  It runs in three 8-week sessions on either Tuesdays or Thursdays.  The first session will begin right after the holidays on either October 5th or 7th.  The new brochure is out, and there are many wonderful classes to choose from.  There are classes for children who are artistic, or athletic, or academic.  In other words, there is something for everyone!  Anyone in ABC on Tuesday or Thursay can participate as part of the ABC program.

 

MAP is open to non-Gesher students as well.  If your child has any friends in the neighborhood, or from synagogue who would like to come for a MAP class, please pass along a brochure to them.  Fall 2010 MAP brochure  

 

Hope to see many of your childen in MAP this year!

 

 

 

 

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that American children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily.  Factor in Facebook time, TV and computer games, texting, twittering, and tweeting, and screen time grows exponentially.  It is estimated that by the time the average child starts middle school, he or she will have witnessed 8,000 murders and over 100,000 other acts of violence on TV.  By the time that child is 18 years old, he or she will have witnessed 200,000 acts of violence, including 40,000 murders!  A longitudinal study conducted over the course of 17 years concluded that teens who watched more than one hour of TV a day were almost four times as likely as other teens to commit aggressive acts in adulthood.  Another study found that more than half of children had TVs in their bedrooms - of those, 44% admitted they watched shows that were not approved by their parents when alone in their rooms.  The average American youth spends 900 hours in school, but over 1200 hours in front of the TV!  About two-thirds of American families eat dinner in front of the TV, in spite of research that convincingly shows a correlation between family time around the dinner table and improved academic prowess.  As a community, we need to be paying attention to this wealth of data.
 
Popular entertainment came under serious scrutiny after the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School when reports illuminated the Columbine killers' fondness for shooter video games.  Over a decade has passed and the only thing that is certain is that children are more exposed to violence in the electronic media than ever before.  Setting violence aside for a moment, a half hour in front of the TV delivers a smorgasbord of irreverence, profanity, and undiscriminating sexual behavior.  While electronic media is a fact of modern life, a screen-free week sends our children an important message - being together, playing games, taking walks, reading, and enjoying alternative activities is a healthy, fun alternative to vegetating in front of the tube.  
 
Gesher joins schools nationwide for National Screen-Free Week from September 17-25.  If a whole week of being screen-free seems overwhelming, take smaller steps and commit to a screen-free day.  Go on, dust off the Monopoly board or another favorite game and reconnect.  You have everything to gain...