Digest Number 721

[Guest guest]

Re: Kids and TV.

 

I'm really divided on the tv issue. Philosophically,

I'm completely anti-tv; realistically, I know that tv

taught me to read. (I was about 2.5 when I walked in

and started to read a Sesame Street magazine to my mom

- she had no idea I could even recognize letters.) I

grew up in a house where if you were awake, the tv was

on. (And in my husband's house, they don't seem to

know the tv has an off button - it stays on even when

his folks leave the house.) We're not obsessed with

tv, but we do enjoy even the occasional entertaining

program with no redeeming value. And we're

intelligent, successful human beings. So it can't be

all bad. (The " we turned out ok " argument, which I'm

actually pretty uncomfortable with, but there you go.)

 

 

I think my baby is much too young to watch tv, but she

watches the weather channel for about 10 minutes in

the morning while Daddy eats breakfast and Sesame

Street for 20 minutes in the afternoon when she gets

cranky waiting for me to come home. I'm not entirely

happy about it, but at the same time, I remind myself

that it's probably not going to turn her into a rabid

McDonald's-eating, playmate-hitting, no-attention-span

monster. We've gotten very good at not having the tv

on unless there is a specific show we want to wach,

which usually happens after the wee one is in bed. I

do want to be careful to avoid the " I need it for the

noise/company/distraction " that my husband and I grew

up with.

 

I certainly don't think you can make an argument that

by not watching tv you're missing education. Even when

tv is educational, it doesn't beat actual interaction.

Now, if you kept your kids locked in a closet and only

let them out to use the bathroom, tv might be more

useful than nothing, but if you're doing anything with

them at all, they're learning enough. You know, when

my mom went to school, they didn't even *start*

teaching kids to read until the first grade. Now it

seems to be abnormal not to be reading in preschool. I

think it's ok to give kids a chance to just learn

without being actively " educated " every second of the

day.

 

As for not recognizing characters... I think that's

ok. They'll learn quickly enough - walk through a

Target sometime and try to keep your kid unaware of,

say, Sponge Bob. He's on EVERYTHING. Kids notice.

They'll pick up enough to hold their own in playground

conversation even if they're not watching the show.

 

Like I said, I'm in the middle on tv. But one thing

I'm definite about is that I won't let dd watch tv by

herself until she's much, much older. No parking her

to get stuff done. (Even when my husband uses it for

some quiet breakfast time, she's sitting right there

on his lap.) No tv in her bedroom as long as she lives

with me. Even if she hasn't learned to change the

channel yet and is only watching shows I approve of, I

still don't think she should be left alone with the

tv. You never know when it will reach out and suck out

her brains through a straw. And it keeps us aware of

what and how much she's watching, and avoids that

slippery slope of " well, just watch teletubbies for a

second while Daddy washes these dishes... "

 

Someone else asked about computers, which I feel much

the same way about. Actually, I just read a really

interesting article that my mom clipped about how

computers are very, very bad for little children.

There are three fairly recent studies that show that

educational computer software kind of sucks (limits

creativity, and I forget what all else, but basically

the problem is that it's so very constrained with no

option of open-endedness, and only interacts through

the mouse, which does something else bad to them),

which I've always thought - how could my child

possibly learn more about buoyancy by clicking pretend

things in a pretend fishtank than she could with a

real bucket of water and some stuff? I'm not

anti-computer (I'm a computer professional and hey, I

like being employed) but I am anti- " using it just to

use it " , aka, " we've got a grant to buy a computer,

now what do we do? " . The problem with most educational

software is that we try to use it to mimic real life

things, when it would be a lot easier and more

effective (and a lot better for the kids, who learn

with their whole bodies, not just with their eyes and

mouse fingers) to use the real things instead.

 

However, to bring in another thread - would I rather

my daughter dissected a virtual frog on the computer

screen than a real one in a tray? Heck yeah. The tiny

bit of learning she'd miss by not using a poor dead

thing isn't worth it.

 

And I think computer software *can* be good for kids.

It just isn't. Yet. In another 10 or 20 years, who

knows? Even some things are ok now, I think - I'm all

for reading the paper online, or looking stuff up in

those collected National Geographic or encyclopedia CD

sets. (Strangely enough, my pro-tv husband is very

anti-computer-search - he thinks she should be taught

to use a card catalog. Not that I'd even know where to

find one these days.)

 

One last computer thing - my aunt teaches autistic

children, and they have special software that works

*very* well for getting them to communicate. But I do

think that's a special situation and I don't know if

it's generally applicable.

 

So there are my thoughts on the issues, for what it's

worth. (Can you tell I've been thinking a lot about

these things lately?)

 

-kt