My Fresh Hell
Life in Scribbletown.

Boob Tube

2006-07-31
I had a nice weekend, for once, so I�m feeling good. My husband & I dropped the kids off at my dad�s Saturday night and had a delicious Mexican dinner with my sister and her husband. Then we watched Wes Anderson�s �Bottle Rocket� over beer and brownies.

I�ve been thinking about some of the discussion and comments from my kindergarten post last week, especially readersguide�s comment about the merits of boredom and harriet�s worries about academics eroding opportunities for play.

While kindergarten is going in a more academic direction, I think we may be expecting too much out of public school, as a country. Schooling used to consist of the basics. Now we expect teachers to �teach� all manner of topics including self-esteem, morals and personal hygiene. Not that there�s anything wrong with that (though, god, wasn�t Health Class boring when it wasn�t downright ridiculous?) but when we insert all these extras, we�re losing many important things like art and creative exploration, recess, free reading time.

Much of this stuff is our responsibility � teaching our kids how to behave (not that they always listen or care), distinguishing right from wrong (not that we�re always the best example), etc. So, now that schools lack what we feel it ought to have, we�ll have to pick up the slack. I�m not anti-progress or one of those back-to-basics proponents, but I think enough�s enough. At least until teachers are paid what they�re worth and treated as more than secretaries with teaching certificates.

And, yes, many kids aren�t that lucky. Which is why, for the greater good, teachers found themselves instructing middle schoolers on the importance of a daily bath (I did not grow up with a shower � we just had a claw foot tub and a hose attachment � but I was clean), running interference when fights broke out, etc. And it�s why schools hired guidance counselors � problems at home were keeping kids from learning.

So, we can�t have it all but I, at least, can fill in the blanks in my own home. Dusty gets ample opportunity to play. It�s pretty much what she does. One reason for that is that the television is rarely on. The kids watch one half-hour of television per night, and not every night. They watch the dvds we�ve purchased: Rocky & Bullwinkle, Bugs Bunny, The Electric Company, the occasional movie. Dusty never watches cable shows unless she�s sick. Period.

I rarely (read: never) agree with our paper�s editor (who is the most pompous ass*ole known to man; I mean, I can�t take anyone seriously who perches his reading glasses up on his bare scalp AND wears a bowtie. I mean, come on!) but I read a recent op/ed he wrote (back in 1980 and reprinted last week) about television vs reading with interest. Here it is.

I�m so happy that we never got the kids in the habit of watching a lot of television. While there are times when life would be much easier, short term, for me if I used the tv as a babysitter while I went off and used the computer or tidied up; long term I wouldn�t be acting responsibly. I want to raise kids who, like readersguide wrote, discover things out of sheer boredom (not that my kids are ever bored). Kids who find immense pleasure in reading (Dusty�s just read the entire �Where the Sidewalk Ends� by Shel Silverstein to herself) as I did as a kid.

I remember spending entire DAYS lying around the house on a summer day just reading. One summer, I was in Michigan visiting my best friend and we would go to the library, check out 10 books each, go back and read our stack, and then switch. After we�d each read all 20 books, we�d go back for more. Those are the kind of memories I want my children to have of their childhood, not being able to recite all the inane shows they watched on Noggin or Nick Jr.

Now, I�m not going to debate the merits of the current shows for children. They are not, in and of themselves, bad (apart from Barney, which I hate with every fiber of my being). Dusty enjoyed the rare Teletubbies viewing and really liked the Boobahs because they were so absurd (you can�t tell me the creators aren�t smoking something fun). But, I�d rather they found other things to do, that they didn�t fall back on the bad habit of television as a default. That, if bored, they find something constructive (or, in Red�s case, destructive) to do. And I say this as someone who watched an ungodly amount of television in my youth. Because my parents were the TV1 generation and thought it was a wonderful thing. It never occurred to them (and they were readers, artists, and non-middle class) that my television viewing should be curtailed just a tiny bit.

I am the TV2 generation and know that technology can be good and bad � and we need to use our common sense about it. Television does things that no other media can do (pre computer age, that is). I vividly remember the men landing on the moon. My mother woke me up (I was three) and sat me in front of the screen so that I could witness history happen. So, I�m not one of those snooty, �Oh, I haven�t owned a television in years!� kind of people. Far from it. I like a little television � I have a slew of favorite shows � but I�m not just going to sit and watch stupidity. If there�s really nothing on that I want to see, that�s worth my time, I turn it off and open a book. I actually read during commercials anyway so I�ve been a multi-media-tasker for years.

I�d prefer that my kids wait as long as possible before becoming couch potatoes. And, maybe if I�m lucky, that�ll never happen. I�d rather they engage their minds and creativity with toys and art and books. There is nothing like a really good story. On paper.

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10:06 a.m. ::
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