Students, Families Choosing Life Outside TV
Libby Laughary is not asking you to blow up your TV.
She just wants you to turn it off for a while.
For the month of October, Chattaroy Elementary students and their families are pledging to turn off the tube.
For Kick the TV Habit Month, at least 50 Chattaroy families have pledged to limit or stop their TV watching. In exchange, the school, through a state grant awarded to first-grade teacher Laughary, is giving parents and kids the book “365 TV-Free Activities.”
If students and families meet their goals, which range from a tube moratorium to 16 hours per week, they will be given gift certificates for the North Side Sta-Fit, Wonderland golf course and the Deer Park Lanes bowling alley.
The idea originated with a conversation Laughary, a first-grade teacher, had with her class. Many of them had seen movies like “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
“If children learn more from what they see rather than what they hear, how could it not (hurt them)?” asked Laughary.
To obtain the $1,500 state grant that is funding the project, she had to dig through piles of studies on violence and children.
What she found amazed her.
By the time the average kid graduates from elementary school, he or she will have seen 100,000 acts of violence and 8,000 murders on TV and in movies and video games.
Fourth-grader Cory Keiper and his family decided to put heavy restrictions on his TV-watching hours.
The only TV he can watch during October? Mariner games.
“He’s hooked. Well, I’m hooked too,” said Becky Keiper, his mother.
Joggers have principal goal
Most students at Midway Elementary’s fund-raising jog-a-thon wanted to beat Principal Dave Groth.
Not sixth-grader Breanna Brown.
“I wanted to say a girl beat the guys,” said Brown.
She did, running 29 laps around the one-fifth-mile course. That was farther than some of the boys her age.
Theresa Frost, one of the organizers of Friday’s jog-a-thon, said she hoped donations would beat the $15,000 collected last year - an average of about $25 for each of the school’s 634 students.
Students are still collecting pledges, so the total won’t be available for a week. But Frost said she has heard very positive comments from parents and expects at least as much as in recent years.
The Midway Parent Teacher Organization hopes to raise enough money for a dozen computers and printers.
“We tell parents if this isn’t enough, you get to sell candy,” said organizer Ruth Ann Johnson.
In addition to raising money, students also collected shoes for a donation to Ogden Hall, a women’s shelter. About 60 pairs hung from the ceiling in the school’s commons.
In the three jog-a-thon sessions, about 25 students had more laps than Groth.
“I was ahead of him the whole time,” said breathless Garrett Brown, a sixth-grader.
But comparisons weren’t quite fair, because Groth, an avid jogger, ran in each of the three 45-minute sessions - totaling 91 laps, or about 11 miles.
“I got my workout during the day today,” said Groth, wiping sweat out of his eyes.
Principal going to jail - for charity
Glover Middle School Principal Phil Newsum will spend a day in jail Wednesday when he will be locked up for the March of Dimes.
Keystone cops will handcuff Newsum and take him to a jail set up at NorthTown Mall. He will be given an hour to call friends to make as much “bail” as possible.
He is taking bail pledges early so he won’t have to sit in jail for his full allotted hour.
“Hey, I’ve got a school to run,” said Newsum.
To help him make bail, call Glover Middle School at 353-4484.
Newsum said he has never been in jail before.
, DataTimes MEMO: Education Notebook is a regular feature of the North Side Voice. If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a North Side school or about the achievements of North Side students, teachers or school staff, please let us know. Write: Jonathan Martin, Education Notebook, North Side Voice, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call: 459-5484. Fax: 459-5482.