Our family watches television, and not just some of those worthwhile rpograms on PBS or the Discovery Channel. We watch cartoons, we watch old movies, we watch a little of almost everything. We don't go to extremes, and there is a certain amount of selectivity involved, but not everything we watch is educational or morally uplifting. Anyway, the other day I saw one of those lists of all the reasons responsible parents should limit their children's television viewing to one hour a day or less, and it occurred to me that the same arguments could be used about that other major influence on the typical American child. Children who watch too much television are unenthusiastic about reading.
School often turns reading into a chore to be mastered instead of letting it become a pleasure.
Watching television takes time which could be used for other activities. Attending school takes time which could be used for other activities. Spending hours in front of the TV creates sedentary, physically unfit children. Spending hours sitting at a school desk creates sedentary, physically unfit children. Watching television is a passive, non-participatory activity.