It can take them to places they have never been, introduce them to people they may never meet, and provide them with important and engaging lessons in history, science, math geography and language.
Television also can provide children with an understanding of common values and right and wrong.
It's no secret that children in America watch a lot of television. For many of today's youth, television serves alternately as a best friend, a surrogate parent, a baby-sitter and a teacher. With that many roles, it's crucial that parents and kids understand the ways to make television work as a positive force in a child's education and development. Television works best when parents help fill in for the things it cannot do. But for this to happen, parents must be well informed and must guide the viewing habits of their children just as they control decisions about eating and sleeping.