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Television and American Parents
| Article
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18052 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1990 |
3,804 Words |
| Author
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Linus Wright
Linus Wright is a former undersecretary of the U.S.
Department of Education. From 1978 to 1987, he was
superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District.
Since 1989 he has served as president and chief executive
officer of Ideal Learning, Inc., an educational computer
software company located in Irving, Texas. |
I have a grandson; and I suspect that he watches all the television he wants to - which is entirely too much. His parents have decided that TV is a central part of contemporary American life and that young people should be given greater freedom in choosing how they will spend their time. I understand their position, but I do not agree with it. I have seen the consequences of such permissiveness in our classrooms, and I know that they are devastating.
Parents in an earlier time were not so indulgent. When I was in school, none of us listened to radio in the daytime, when the soap operas were to busy building tree huts, or playing sandlot baseball, or working for a merit badge in the scouts. Had I lounged around the house listening to Ma Perkins and Pepper Young's Family, my parents would have let me get away with it for a day and then run me outside with orders to "get some exercise." (And people didn't say and do the things on Ma Perkins that they say and do on Days of Our Lives.)
Of course, many things have changed in our society, and most have had some effect on our schools: but I am reasonably certain that to some degree the problems we have in schools these days are the result of excess TV viewing. Too many parents let their children crowd in front of TV sets every afternoon and evening for as long as they wish, without any supervision, watching what they choose to watch. In fact, surveys have indicated that, on average, American children spend more time in front of the television each week than they do in class. Truly responsible parents don't let their children waste hours and hours staring at a lighted tube - if for no other reason than because such prolonged viewing is bad for young eyes.
Of course, excessive TV watching is bad for children for many other reasons as well. It is bad for their general health, since it prevents them from getting proper exercise. It is bad for their minds, since it often deeps them from doing their homework and from the kind of reading that expands awareness and the ability to reason. And it's bad for their characters, since it presents as normative all kinds of behavior that a majority of Americans deplore.
So as a grandfather as well as someone with forty years' experience in the public school system, let me presume to offer some advice to members of my own family as well as to the many other parents in America genuinely concerned for the future of their children and their society. After all, parents are still the most important educators of their young; and because of the
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