My baby sister uses television to "learn" constantly. She isn't allowed to go to kindergarten yet because of her age, but she watches shows like Dora the Explorer, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Super Why to teach her how to spell, read, and speak. While these shows do help her in terms of teaching her to slow down when she needs to spell or sound out a word, they are mostly just easy ways to keep her busy until she goes to school. The problem is, as Postman describes in
Amusing Ourselves to Death , watching these shows makes her want to watch other shows that are even less informative, like Spongebob. Therefore, she ends up learning very little for the total amount of time she spends watching TV. Not only that, but she also retains very little of it past the techniques they use to spell. She doesn't actually learn to speak Spanish from Dora, she learns the theme song. In this case, the TV shows aren't completely useless, but they're not worth the amount of time she spends watching them.
When I watch TV shows, they're either useless "reality" TV or they're educational environmental shows. I disagree with Postman in my case because while much of educational TV is useless, there are some shows that do teach us and allow for us to retain the information. While watching shows on the History Channel about how aliens made our world is useless, watching documentaries on National Geographic and National Geographic Wild is not.
Are there any TV shows that you personally find educational, or do you also believe that all of these shows just
seem educational?
-Lina Elasmar
I like your points, Lina! I agree that many children shows are meant to keep them busy, rather than to learn and retain information. I also agree with you about educational t.v. shows. I remember watching Bill Nye the Science Guy all through elementary and middle school, and I actually retained quite a bit of information. I also think watching History Channel and other educational channels can be teach you depending on watch you watch.
ReplyDeleteHey Lina! I agree with you that some educational TV shows just seem educational but I think there are a number of other educational shows that are actually educational. I enjoy watching shows on the History Channel and the Science Channel and I learn a lot from them. I remember specifically a while ago on the History Channel there was a 3 episode special on the World Wars that I watched. It was pretty interesting and I learned a few things that I didn't learn in class. I think we can find educational shows as long as we can tell whether or not they really are educational.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly why I don't watch TV anymore. Do me a favor and give your sister a GameBoy Color and a copy of Tetris and see if she is learning strategy n stuff from that. Puzzle/Strategy games are the only reasons my brain doesn't entirely collapse over summer break. She should benefit from them too. JUST SAYIN
ReplyDeleteI should specify: video games that don't try to be educational but still take brains are better than television that crams "hola's" and "count-with-me's" down your throat
DeleteI totally agree with you. Children are very easily amused. So the show producers of Dora the Explorer don't have to work very hard in creating their shows, and obviously dont put in a lot of thought to what they are actually trying to teach the children. While the shows on History Channel are there mainly for entertainment, the producers of those shows must know that their viewers aren't THAT stupid, and so they actually try to put real content in their shows, making them somewhat educational.
ReplyDeleteLina, I agree with you completely that they don't really learn anything from these shows. I loved your example with Dora because my cousin doesn't really speak Spanish like I do so she was watching Dora to somewhat learn the language. She is much younger than I so I didn't argue with her. Well she comes up to my grandma and she says that she speaks Spanish and my grandma said let's hear it. She said: "Si se puede! Si se puede!" We all just laughed because all she knew how to say was "You can do it " or "It is possible." In my opinion that's not learning the Spanish language, it's learning a phrase in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteHey Lina, I agree with you that these children shows like Dora and Spongebob contain more material about being entertaining than educating and I feel like they are meant to be that way. Though there are shows that try to make learning the forefront of the show like The Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy, while they are still entertaining. The shows on the History channel, on the other hand, get straight to teaching you the subject while also keeping it interesting.
ReplyDeleteI also agree. The History Channel reference really made me laugh! Most educational shows aimed at kids don't actually teach kids to love learning. In the words of Postman, "'Sesame Street' does not encourage children to love school or anything about school. It encourages them to love television." (Chapter 10, Page 144) So children's educational TV is doing just that. Adult educational shows are probably a bit better. Adults already love television anyways, so they might as well teach learn something interesting while channel surfing.
ReplyDelete