Oh Wait. Everything Bad For You Is... Still Bad For You
from the sorry-Steven dept
With Steven Johnson still getting lots of attention for his book, Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, we noted that the book seems to be almost entirely supported with anecdotal evidence and loose links between different sets of data. So, perhaps a few studies are needed to clarify things. Today we've got a bunch of studies looking at how TV watching impacts kids and the results don't look pretty. Kids who watch a lot of TV seem to do poorly in school in a variety of different studies in different places. Of course, you could question these results as well. It's not entirely clear that watching TV causes the kids to do worse in school, even if that is what the article implies. Perhaps it's the other way around -- or some third factor causes both bad school results and lots of TV watching. There's no guarantee that if you took the same kid and removed the TV that they'd do any better. Either way, parents who were getting fed up with kids pointing them to Johnson's book now have a response.
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As far as whether or not 'taking the TV away from a student that is doing poorly' would help him to do better; please enjoy referencing the following book for several wonderful examples of exactly that happening."The Shelter of Each Other, Rebuilding Our Families"
by Mary Pipher, author of Best Seller "Reviving Ophelia"I lived for several years without even having owned a television... with my three children! We had time to read aloud, make crafts together, put together puzzles, and play games. They over indulged when they went to friends' homes, but other than that, they really didn't even miss it. It is amazing how much more time there is in each day, when none of it is being wasted with the mindless blabber our society considers 'entertainment.'Do you think D. H. Lawrence or Ralph Waldo Emerson spent much time being so 'entertained'? Or how 'bout Einstein? I think we can safely say that 'not watching television' is more mentally stimulating (almost - no matter what you are doing instead), than watching nearly ANY amount. So therefore... watching less would prove positive for said 'poorer students'. Even if none of that extra time was spent studying... just having the more positive, loving, reliable and non-violent atmosphere would improve the child's ability to be a 'better student.'
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