Sandra Dodd

http://www.tvturnoff.org/rpage3.htm


Someone pointed out a bad link on one of my pages, and upon checking
that I had it working, I was sucked into the site.
The page it's on is
http://sandradodd.com/t/vijay
Vijay on Television, Children and Making Decisions Rationally

The links is to
http://www.tvturnoff.org
and here's their logo, for those who are set up to see such things:


Very TV-like. <g>


But on this page there are some very thought-provoking "facts."

-=-"Children watch 2.1 hours of television per day, second only to
the time they spend sleeping."-=-

So those days were measured in such a way that nothing else happened
for two hours? Not being with siblings or parents? Not being in
school? (They discuss homework/schoolwork.) Some kids ride a
schoolbus 2.1 hours a day. Maybe the averaged out homework for the
week or something, I don't know, but it seems worthless.

-=-"Analysis of 1,063 children's television programs shows that...
educational programs designed for school-aged children are not
available."-=-

Maybe they shouldn't have been looking at "children's television
programs" if they wanted to see how and where real-aged people learn
from TV. Did they consider newsmagazine shows, talk shows, Nova,
documentaries, concerts or cooking shows? WHY should there be
"designed-for-school-aged" educational programs? School thinks and
claims it's serving all a child's educational needs.

Here's another bit some of you will see and some might not:


It's a graph showing that children spend more time watching TV than
doing schoolwork at home.
Good for them.

Since my kids have no schoolwork at home, they can spend all that
time watching more TV and learning more.

From an unschooling point of view, this doesn't make sense:

-=-"Analysis of 1,063 children's television programs shows that...
educational programs designed for school-aged children are not
available."-=-

Why analyze 1,063 children's programs? Why not just look at real
children and how they learn from all kind of things?

-=-"Over half (55.8%) of secondary aged young people have a
television set in their room... Children with television sets in
their bedrooms watch 2.5 hours more per week..."-=-

Holly doesn't have a TV in her bedroom anymore, but she used to.
When she did, she would have it on while she cleaned her room,
braided her My Little Ponies manes, drew and colored, worked on the
computer, made fairies with pipe cleaners and sparkly cloth and
wooden beads. I think those families with rules against bringing
things like that into the den would (by their own rules) see TV
watching as a sit-and-look-quietly activity.

I could go on, but I won't. The page is short. The site is large.

Sandra






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bob Collier

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> children spend more time watching TV than
> doing schoolwork at home.
> Good for them.
>


ROFL

jenstarc4

>> -=-"Children watch 2.1 hours of television per day, second only to
> the time they spend sleeping."-=-
>
> So those days were measured in such a way that nothing else happened
> for two hours? Not being with siblings or parents? Not being in
> school? (They discuss homework/schoolwork.) Some kids ride a
> schoolbus 2.1 hours a day. Maybe the averaged out homework for the
> week or something, I don't know, but it seems worthless.

Not only that, the study only measures time at home. I would wager
that my children spend a lot more time at home than most schooled
children and probably watch a lot more tv, but percentage wise watch a
comparably less amount of total at home time watching tv.

[email protected]

What about Einstein? He was a big fan of "Your Show of Shows."

"Your Show of Shows" ran from 1950 to 1954. At its peak, it had 25 million
viewers, including Albert Einstein, who apparently took great delight in a stock
Caesar character, the German professor who was an expert on everything. Mr.
Caesar said that Einstein's secretary called him with a request from Einstein
that the two get together. Einstein died before this strange meeting of the
minds could take place. "Your Show of Shows" ran from 1950 to 1954." _Manic
Haste, Matchless Humor: Sid Caesar on the Good Old Days - New York Times_
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1DC1431F932A35757C0A963958260&sec=
&spon=&pagewanted=print)

and

"Some 36 years ago Albert Einstein requested the pleasure of Sid Caesar's
presence at Princeton. This performer, a kind of pyrotechnic of comedy, was
lighting up the television screen for 90 minutes, 39 weeks a year with a show that
had the elements of timing the universe relies on. Einstein died before Caesar
could come to him, but Robert Oppenheimer later told Mr. Caesar: ''Albert
wanted to see you. He figured out the physical equation. He wanted to talk to you
about the human equation.'

History agrees that Einstein usually knew what he was talking about, and it's
clear the man knew his comedy. Mr. Caesar's work is the humor of the human
condition, ''taken a little further,'' as he says." _THEATER; Humorous Sages
of the Human Condition - New York Times_
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DE1630F936A25757C0A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print)
We'll have to be sure to put that if ever we decide start up tvturn*on*.org.
<g>

-Patty

To support me in helping the orphanages of Baja, Mexico, visit
_Patty's Corazon de Vida Orphans of Baja Pledge Page_
(http://www.active.com/donate/cdvholiday/pattyhunt)



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sandra Dodd

-=-We'll have to be sure to put that if ever we decide start up
tvturn*on*.org.
<g>-=-



Hey, it's called http://sandradodd.com/tv

and I'll put it there.



Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]