Sandra Dodd

"Television is a chewing gum for the eyes," says Frank Lloyd Wright.

That's quoted on the TV turnoff site.

Wow. "Frank Lloyd Wright." That's a famous name. He must be right.

When Frank Lloyd Wright died, TV was less than ten years old,
really. He was in Arizona. They hadn't had TV until early 50's.

Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect. He was an engineer and an
artist. He wasn't a good husband or a good father. He probably
didn't spend much time watching TV, in his late 80's, when TV
broadcast was first broad.

Oh, right. He was born in 1867. Horse and buggy days, totally.
Trains. Pre-radio, pre-automobile, way pre-airplane.

So these anti-TV people are making a supremely odd move by quoting
him about TV.

And this reminds me, too, to mention that John Holt wasn't keen on
TV. He was also fairly old when TV came along, and he was
childless. He wasn't a bad father, because he wasn't a father at
all, which is fine.

When John Holt visited families, they had company and so probably
didn't have the TV on. When he was home, he did a ton of reading
and writing. I don't criticize that, because it's most of what I do
with my own days.

John Holt easily retracted his statement and belief that cursive was
faster than printing when some kids raced him and beat him. He quit
justifying cursive writing as being necessarily faster after that.

If John Holt were here now, he'd have changed his mind about TV,
because what he cared about was learning. Many of us have children
who have clearly and repeatedly demonstrated a TON of learning from
TV, video at home, video online, etc. He would see that and be
changed, because he was learning all the time.

Sandra








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