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I recently
came across an anecdote from the documentary film, "Does
TV Kill?" An eight-year-old boy was asked if he would give
up television for a million dollars. The boy immediately
responded "No way!" When asked why, he replied, "What would
I do?"
I thought of this recently in light of some new statistics
about television, and particularly television and children:
In 1950, 10% of American households owned a TV set; by 1960
that was 80% of American households. Currently, 98% have
televisions; 66% own three or more. Television is on almost
seven hours per day in the average American home, and a
child spends more time watching TV than any other activity
except sleeping.
What is wrong with this picture? Dr. Susan Johnson, a specialist
in Behavior and Developmental Pediatrics in San Francisco,
writes that, "Watching television affects the three characteristics
that distinguish us as human beings. In the first three
years of life a child learns to walk, to talk, and to think.
Television keeps us sitting, leaves little room for meaningful
conversation, and seriously impairs our ability to think."
While Dr. Johnson's focus is the child's growing brain,
and television's effect on that process, Jim Trelease, in
The Read-Aloud Handbook, explains why he believes that television
is the single greatest threat to a child's reading. He refers
to television as the "major stumbling block to literacy
in America." Some of the problems:
-
"Television is the direct opposite of reading - it requires
and fosters a short attention span."
- "For young children television is an antisocial experience."
- "Television deprives the child of his most important learning
tool: his questions."
- "Television interrupts the most
important language lesson in a child's life: family conversation."
- "Television stimulates anti-school and anti-reading feelings
among children."
- "Television stifles the imagination."
- "Television is psychologically addictive."
According
to a Yanklovich Youth Monitor Survey (1993) 80% of American
children reported watching TV in the hours between school
and dinner. Trelease acknowledges the difficulty of combating
the allure of TV. His discussion of how his family (when the
book was published his children were five and nine) achieved
a workable policy for controlling viewing is believable and
realistic. He is not an above-the-fray academic offering unachievable
advice. He and his wife confronted the same problems that
most modern parents have in implementing an unpopular policy
with their children - a lack of energy at the end of the workday
and a strong, resilient adversary (the children). Trelease
offers parents and children alternatives (conversation, family
games, reading aloud) and explains their benefits. In the
final chapter ("Treasury of Read-Alouds"), Trelease lists
and briefly reviews over three hundred titles of proven winners
including wordless books, picture books, short novels, poetry,
and anthologies. It is a superb source of ideas for parents
and teachers. As we begin the twenty-first century, it appears
that indiscriminate television viewing by children poses an
even greater threat than we might have imagined. While much
attention has been focused on other problems which our young
people are confronting - drugs, alcohol, violence, teenage
sex - it may be that the "youth" problems of our time are
more closely related to television than we would care to admit.
While the insights of Dr. Johnson and the advice of Jim Trelease
do not provide solutions to all of these problems, they offer
alternatives which would likely strengthen the bonds between
and stimulate the minds of both children and adults.
Thomas
A. Northrup
Headmaster
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