But he had more innovative ideas in mind, too. For example, when a bagel machine is behind a glass wall everyone who walks by and looks in learns something about how bagels are made. At the FCC I used to say, All television is educational television. The average Iowa City child, by the time he or she enters kindergarten, has already spent more hours being educated by television than that child will later spend sitting in a classroom at the University of Iowa earning a B.A. degree. Teachers have to modify instruction to accommodate the television-induced short attention span of students.
Guidance counselors deal with the impact of television on kids self-esteem and sense of values.
But we can t get off the hook that easily. We can t just blame television. When the mechanic lifts our car on a hoist and shows us what s wrong, when a police officer has a truly friendly chat with a teenager, when a co-worker shows us a computer solution, it s education. Everything we say and do is an educational lesson. Every time we interact with a child we are a teacher or they are.