Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 18, 1991 TAG: 9103180241
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
"The Turtles encourage violent and anti-social behavior among young children and have a disturbing effect on learning, behavior and play," said Diane Levin, an associate professor of education at Wheelock College who was co-author of the study.
Some adults may think the four turtles, named for Renaissance painters, are more likely to spark a child's imagination than run-of-the-mill musclebound superheroes.
The study's general conclusion from the 73 educators from 19 states who responded to the survey was that youngsters emulate the turtles' karate chopping and pizza chomping, but little else.
Ninety-five percent of the respondents provided examples of aggressive behavior linked to the turtle characters, Levin said Sunday.
"The way the Ninja Turtles work out their difficulties is by socking each other and knocking each other," said Hanne Sonquist, who is on the board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
"It's totally programmed and scripted so that many children who watch a great deal of that kind of programming have less access to the imagination," said Sonquist, who runs a workshop for parents and young children in California.
Levin conceived the survey after parents and teachers asked her to examine turtle mania. "When the Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles came out, we immediately began to get telephone calls from teachers and parents telling us how kids were going crazy," she said.
The story of the turtles' birth certainly strays from the superhero script. They started out as aquarium pets, but mutated after falling into a pool of radioactive glop in a New York sewer.
Artists Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, who dreamed up the characters, did not respond to a request for comment on the study.
by CNB