Does video-watching = genius?

Seems the Disney folks who produce the incredibly popular video series, Baby Einstein, are giving refunds for the videos because they do not - I repeat, do NOT - turn your babies into geniuses simply by watching them. Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has been fighting the video-babysitter industry for years and got to the brink of a class-action lawsuit before Disney caved to the refund idea.

OK, here's this Baby Boomer's take on all this. The whole Baby Einstein-stuff is just silly. So are all those programs trying to teach a 3-month old to read. C'mon, parents. Do you really want tiny kids to be smarter than you? No, you do not. (And you certainly don't want your teenager to be smarter than you, but there's no real danger of that, unless you're trying to relive your youth at the same time. But I digress.)

However, I'm not sure I buy into the whole "no commercials, no television, no pop-culture" push, either. My own dear child was raised on lots of Disney videos - Mary Poppins, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and on and on. Often times a parent does need a video- babysitter, whether just running to the bathroom or fixing dinner, and who better than Julie Andrews, Jiminy Cricket, Flora & Fauna, and Angela Lansbury to entertain your tot? Comedy, drama, color, music, and life-lessons - with no over-arching goal of making the viewer into someone who can invent a great way to destroy mankind.

And have you ever met one of those no-TV kids as an adult? Completely clueless as to pop-references in literature, newspapers, and daily conversation with peers. Kinda creepy.

Here's the thing. There's nothing wrong with great entertainment, which usually teaches more than anything pointedly "educational." The real bonus is that the good stuff, the classic stuff, captures the parent as well as the child. I will gladly snuggle next to my little one to watch and laugh and sing and explain Meet Me In St. Louis or Worst Witch, something I'd never do with a Baby Einstein video. Oooh, yes. I'm talking parental-engagement here. Good parenting does take constant presence, explanation, and cuddling with children.

So those of you with stacks of Baby Einstein videos, pack 'em up and send 'em back to Disney for a refund. And remember. The real Baby Einstein didn't watch videos to become Big Guy Einstein.