Defined Choice

I have been thinking lately about what we are teaching children with the media we expose them to.

I have watched several episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse today. They have an element of the show called a Mouseketool. This thing has several tools to solve problems each show. Then when a problem is encountered they call for the Mouseketool and choose one.

The problem I have with this thing is that it teaches kids the following;

1. When you encounter a problem, you will always have a solution.
2. There is one right solution to a problem
3. There is no way to combine tools to solve a problem.
4. There is no way to adapt to a problem so that You can still accomplish your goals.

Now I wish this was a Mickey mouse problem, but it is merely one dot in a much larger trend line. This is especially alarming to me as video games become a much more prevalent form of entertainment, because they exemplify this problem. I never imagined how hard and fast my turn against video games would occur. Just two years ago, I spent like 20 hours a week playing them. What a change.

I think we are putting so many defined choices into our entertainment that we are killing creativity in children. Thoughts?