Unfortunately, parents across the country become overly concerned when they hear the term pocket monsters. Ebeneezer Smith, a pastor from the Landover Baptist Church in Iowa, claims, “Pokemon toys and games are only sugar coated instruments of the occult and evil” (Landover.) To drive home his point, the pastor burned Pokemon trading cards and videos with a blowtorch while the congregation chanted, “burn it, chop it and kill them all.” Granted monsters make for disquieting playmates, monsters have a way with children. Take for example, Pikachu, who is the cutest mouse since Mickey and the merchandising champ of all the Pokemon monsters, is stealing the hearts of children all over the world. My eight-year-old daughter cried during a part of the Pokemon movie in which Pikachu was hurt. Such a display of empathy from a child should be heartwarming to any parent. However, Sesame Street, whose main characters are monsters such as the cookie monster, Oscar the grouch, Telly and Elmo, does not receive negative attention from the media and is considered wholesome and educational television for children. Parents should look away from the negative publicity to see the true educational value of Pokemon. In Sports Illustrated for Kids, an advertisement for Pokemon trading cards appeals to a child’s need for affiliation, achievement and dominance. The ad asks the child to think of the best field trip imagineable and tells them that the Pokemon Trading Card League is one hundred times better. On this field trip, the child can learn to be a Master Trainer, earn official trainer badges and special game cards and make new friends (Sports Illustrated.) Pokemon combines game playing with collecting. Parents can relate through their days of collecting and acquiring baseball cards or dolls. Yet the best analogy is marbles, kids collect the marbles to play the game only to acquire more marbles from th...
