If It’S Got To Be TV, Make It Educational

Last week The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania reported that one in five television shows aimed at young people has little or no educational value. That came as no surprise, but what did seem shocking was that four out of five kids’ shows apparently do contain some educational value.

The Annenberg report also said that the number of educational shows had risen 12 percent in the last year. But that’s a dubious improvement when you consider that shows like “Duck Tales” and “Hercules” were being offered by some stations to meet the education quota.

“Educational television” sounds like a marvelous concept. In reality, it’s often an oxymoron. While many truly informative shows for young people do exist, it’s still just TV. There sits the child -no movement, no imagination at play, no creativity, no interaction.

If staring at a screen is the preference of the moment, better to fire up the computer and pop in an “edu-tainment” disk.

Granted, there are far worse sins in the world than watching television for fun. Kids should be allowed time out from learning. Unfortunately, children are watching, on average, more than three hours of TV per day. And if parents were as tuned in to what their kids are doing as they’d like us to believe - some even going so far as to claim they sit with the child and discuss the show’s content - they’d likely not be watching TV at all.

Let’s be honest. The electronic babysitter frees up mom and/or dad to get things done. Not in every household, of course, but probably in those where the kids get to watch three or more hours of TV per day.

If the kids must watch TV, tune in often to public television, where shows billed as educational truly are educational, and there is enough variety to suit almost any interest or age bracket. PBS programs spark interest in reading, math, science, art, nature, music, travel, other cultures and getting along with others. They manage to do this in an engaging manner without portraying violent or sinister acts. And they do it without commercials.

Consider what commercials aimed at young people achieve, and how it’s done. They teach them to become mass consumers at an early age. The desired product is shown being enjoyed by beautiful, deliriously happy, well-dressed actors having the time of their life, usually in the company of perfect friends. And are commercials memorable? Researchers found, for example, that more kids age 10-17 know who the Budweiser frogs are than know the name of the vice president of the United States.

If a child watches mind-numbing, possibly violent, shows, interrupted frequently by commercials that make her feel ugly, dull and left out, this cannot be healthy.

A little TV goes a long way, and parents can counter the dismal state of educational TV by supporting truly educational programs, either on commercial or public TV. And by making sure their children don’t spend hours in front of the tube, especially in the summer months when the electronic babysitter is so seductive. Instead, send the kids outside with a good book or a badminton racket.