Our children are
presently 10, 12, and 13 (boy, girl, boy). We have never subscribed
to a cable service, and have never (since our children were born) watched
television in our house. In contrast, we often rent video cassettes
(more recently, DVD's) that we think will be of interest to the children
or (preferably) to the entire family. We average about two films of
this kind a week. They are often the source of discussion around the
dinner table.
Our children, in any event, have no time for television given their
busy schedules. They participate in Tae Kwon Do daily, use the community
pool in the summer, and pursue various projects on their own (e.g.,
learning foreign languages) They are also often engrossed in reading
and in computer games. Regarding the latter, we have discovered a variety
of products that strike us as mentally challenging (although occasionally
somewhat violent). An example is "Age of Empires" (Microsoft).
Our children have occasionally been teased in school for not recognizing
familiar television shows. But they have learned to accept being different
from most of their comrades in this way. Indeed, our children are sensitive
to the amount of television watched by classmates, and note a relation
to school performance.
Our children seem
to classify their classmates along an implicit "drug dependency"
scale. Children who consume great quantities of junk food or spend inordinate
time watching TV fall at the dependent side. The children believe that
the better students — more alert, more courteous to their teachers,
more curious — are among the less dependent.
Doubtless had we tried to implement a no-television regimen halfway
through childhood, we would have faced resistance. But having started
when we did, our plan has never been questioned by the children; indeed,
they seem now to share our point of view. So, we have no advice to offer
parents of children hooked on television. For young couples just starting
a family, however, we have this to say: Build an environment for your
young children that is free of pointed objects, hard surfaces, and poisons
of every sort. Among the poisons you should count soft drinks, tobacco,
demeaning language, and (very definitely) television.
Daniel
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