We encourage our children to read and yet we discourage them from watching television. Some people have commented that this is inconsistent. “Why is the written word a superior way to get information than television?” That’s an interesting point of view worth further exploration. Reading is a skill that is in much greater demand than the demand for watching TV. I have seen few jobs that require a person to be able to watch TV but reading is an integral part of many jobs.
Why?
The written word is an incredibly flexible and efficient way of communication. I can write something down and, in no time, it can be communicated to many different people. Not only that, I can assimilate vast amounts of information through reading in a very short time. I would argue that a good reader can acquire more information in reading for two hours than someone watching TV can acquire in a full day. I know some people predict the eventual downfall of the written or printed word. It will only be gone if a more efficient means of communicating large amounts of information is discovered.
I am able to gain a lot of information quickly because I am a fast reader with good comprehension skills. I want my children to have the same ability. It will save them massive amounts of time and they will be able to assimilate vast quantities of information. I don’t see the same benefit if they acquire the ability to be great TV watchers.
So, if I have a choice of encouraging my child to read a book or watch a TV program, I would much rather him read a book. I have a seven year old who absolutely loves Archie comic books. We buy every one of them that we can find for him. Why? It would be much cheaper to let him watch free cartoons on TV than to buy these comics. And, after all, when he finishes reading an Archie comic book, he probably has no more knowledge than if he watched a cartoon or a TV program. But, in my humble opinion, he is much better off after reading the Archie comic because he has had a little more practice at something that will help him in the future. We encourage Alonzo to readjust about anything that interests him (within certain limits). Even if he doesn’t get anything out of the content, he is accomplishing something in that he is practicing developing his reading skills.
On the other hand, our TV viewing is quite limited. So much of it is a waste of time and this time could be so much better spent, even if it is in just reading a useless Archie comic book.
by Jim Muncy http://www.valdosta.peachnet.edu/~muncyj/homeschooling/thoughts.html#Reading Versus Television
Counter Point
THE digital divide used to separate rich from poor; now it separates parents from their children. Television, in particular, is an enormous presence in the lives of kids today.
Yet, for all the television kids are watching, much of what parents think they know about television’s impact on their children is wrong. For instance, in the early 1970s, it was common knowledge that television was bad for your eyes: My own parents were convinced that my bad eyesight was the result of sitting too close to the screen, and they therefore made me stay at least six feet from it. Today, most people know that television viewing does not cause vision problems, but a host of new myths have emerged, still ripe for debunking:
1. TV makes kids dumb. Actually, high-quality TV shows improve children’s cognitive abilities. Study after study has shown that children 3 to 5 years old who watch an American programme called “Sesame Street” for an hour a day, are better able to recognize numbers, letters and shapes than those who don’t.
When 500 kids who had participated in some of those studies were followed up as teen-agers, those who had watched educational programs as preschoolers had higher grades, were reading more books, placed more value on achievement and were more creative than those who had not.
2. TV makes kids violent. The real story is more complicated. In 1994, researchers reviewed hundreds of studies involving thousands of children and concluded that there was clear evidence that watching violence on TV makes children more aggressive. Similarly, preteens and teen-agers exposed to sexual content on television are more much more likely to engage in the kinds of activities they see on the screen.
But a study of more than 5,000 children also found that “pro-social” programs make children kinder and more tolerant. In fact, the linkage between good behavior and watching good programming is as strong as the link between bad behavior and bad programming. The problem is that kids are increasingly watching shows with violence and sex instead of programming that is appropriate for their age.
3. Educational videos make infants smarter. The names – such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby – suggest one thing, but the data suggest otherwise. According to a 2005 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, no program targeting children younger than 2 has demonstrated any educational benefit.
Evidence from studies my colleagues and I have done suggests that early viewing (under age 3) may be harmful to children’s cognitive development. We found that children who watch TV before age 3 score worse on tests of letter and number recognition upon entering school than those who do not.
And for each hour of television a child watches on average per day before age 3, the chance that the child will have attention problems at age 7 increases by 10 per cent. A 2005 University of Pennsylvania study found that even watching “Sesame Street” before age 3 delayed a child’s ability to develop language skills.
4. Sitting around watching television – instead of playing outside – makes kids overweight. In fact, being a couch potato is not what causes obesity. Kids sit around to read, too, but no one suggests that reading causes obesity. A 1999 Stanford University experiment found that when elementary school children watched less television, they did lose excess weight; however, reducing their television time did not make them more active.
What that suggests is that television-watching itself – unlike other sedentary activities such as reading, block-building or working on art projects – encourages overeating. Snacking in front of the tube is a widespread habit (for kids as well as adults) and the barrage of junk food advertisements only heightens that temptation. About 70 percent of the ads children see on television are for food products, and virtually none of them are for healthy choices. A 2005 Harvard University study found that, on average, children eat about 170 more calories per day for each hour of television they watch, and all of those calories are derived from foods commonly advertised in television commercials.
5. Television helps kids get to sleep. The opposite is true. In a 2005 study of more than 2,000 children, my colleagues and I found that the more television children watch, the more likely they are to have irregular sleep and nap patterns. As common as it is – about three-fourths of children had television as part of their bedtime ritual, according to a national survey – allowing kids to watch television because they can’t sleep is part of the problem, not the solution.
6. Kids watch too much television. Actually, the bigger problem is what they watch and how they watch it. In what some consider the halcyon days of television, families used to gather around a single centrally located set and watched high-quality, family-centered programming together.
When parents watch with their children, the value of the best television programs is enhanced – and the harm of negative programming can be curtailed.
Dimitri Christakis
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