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The REAL educational impact
on
children is not taking place in
our classrooms. For two decades
now, a
more
powerful influence
has been subtly shaping the
minds and values of an entire
generation. What is that force?
How is it affecting us? What
should
you
be doing about it?
This article reveals today's REAL
ill the
school.
by
Vern
l.
Forrow
H
ow
WOULD
you measurc
ed~tca
lional impact?
Would you judge
it in terms of hours expended
by the learner? Would you con–
sider the effect on attitudes and be–
havior? Would you evaluate the in·
fluence on tastes in music, art, literature,
styles, language, recreation, and even
diet?
Most people would agree that all
of these are important and valid indi–
cators. Considered together, they should
certainly measure the degree to which
chi ldren are being impressed by and
changed by any educational agent.
Then what if we apply these criteria
to the varíous educational influences in
the Jives of children today - school,
family, church, peer group, mass media,
and community? Which of these would
you guess to be the greatest educational
force in our contemporary society?
The Wrong Answer
Now your first reaction is predictable.
No doubt the answer that flashed into
your mind was "the schools" - of
course. But that's just
reflex-
a tradi–
tional
reflex.
That was the answer
twenty years ago. That is the pat answer
our society teaches, but times have
changed. Unfortunately that answer is
out of date and out of touch with the
reality of the Seventies. It just isn't
please stand
true anymore and it's time we began
to admit it.
Oh yes, we still go through the mo–
tions. We continue to gather tens of
millions of children into classrooms
daily all across the Iand just as we have
for the past century and a half. We con–
tinue to teach a currículum, which has
never quite gotten in step with the times,
by methods to match. But impercep–
tibly, almost without our awareness, our
classrooms have lost their influence.
Another more powerful educational
force has emerged in the past twenty
years which has finally relegated the
schools to a poor second place in the
competition for children's minds. That
force is
commercial teletoision.
All per–
vasive - all pcrsuasive - uncontrolled
TV!
The focus of
1·eal
education has
shifted. In 95% of America's homes
today, the inAuence of the "Little Red
Schoolhouse" has becn al! but canceled
out by a glowing TV tube in the corner
of the living room !
Yes, by any measure, whether mag–
netic appeal, amount of exposure, or
power to change behavior, commercial
television now wields the major educa–
tional impact in thc land !
Do you take exccption to that? Does
that sound l ike a sensational exagger–
ation? Well if you think this is over-
dramatizing the situation, then ponder
these statistics.
More TV Than School
Jncredible as it sounds, by the time
the average American child reaches ado–
lescence he will have viewed about
22,000 hours of television. That's equal
to more than two and one-half years of
24-hour-a-day viewing! But, during
those same formative years, he will have
spent less than 11,000 hours in a school
classroom. lt's hard to believe, but it's
true- twice as much time spent in tele–
viewing as in schooling!
Now consider this. Nearly
1
2 million
children between the ages of three and
five years do not attend any form of
school. Yet, according to the Nielsen
Television Index, these preschoolers
watch television an average of
54.1
bours each week. No school for these
tots, but they are already spending
nearly 64% of their waking time pas–
sively staring at the great electronic
"schoolmarm"!
This means that by the time one of
thesc preschool children finally enters
kindergarten
he has spent more time in
front of a television set than an average
student in a liberal arts program spends
in the dassroom throughout his cntirc
four ycars of college attendance! Think
of it! lnfants being influenced by TV