I came across this well-balanced article written by a homeschooling mother about why she chooses not to have a television. I thought the arguments were clear, and it was well-referenced and might be of interest to readers of this blog.
As it happens, we also do not have a television. My husband has never had regular access to one. I had one in the family home where I grew up until age 15, but we were always encouraged to select one or two programmes per week that interested us from the Radio Times; background TV or channel hopping were things that we never knew.
I don't think I consciously decided that we would not have a television once children arrived on the scene; it was more that it had never been a part of our adult lives and therefore we saw no need. It is now, as I consider some of the issues such as those outlined in the referenced blog post, that I am grateful for these choices. I have also seen how easy it is to use television as a babysitter (or should that be 'Beebie-sitter'), and have seen many friends abandon their previously proclaimed principles in the name of survival. 'I don't often do this, but.....' 'She is ill, and television is the only thing that settles her'.... 'How else can you possibly cook a meal?' etc. For us, it is not an option, and we can stop the slippery slope before it starts. Perhaps others are better-disciplined, but for us, it is easier to avoid.
What do other readers do? Do you see advantages in having a television? Disadvantages? Is it a neutral thing? Do you think our children are missing out on anything through not being exposed to television?
I agree but it is easy to get sidetracked-and we were. When we first had children, we didn't have television. We weren't bothered about TV and hadn't had one pre-children. We are old enough that when our first child arrived there was no internet. However, our children were introduced to TV via BBC iplayer by someone caring for them whilst I was at work. Like most children they could use computers easily and TV arrived almost without our notice. Backtracking is almost impossible. we still don't have a television but the children watch programmes. It is possible to restrict younger children with passwords.
ReplyDeleteSad tale of a bit of a failure but beware of easy access to TV via computers!
Thanks Sarah - I think one thing that really got me thinking about what you have described was spending time with a family who have five children aged about 7-18. They do not have a television, for similar reasons to those I have discussed in the blog. But if you spend an evening in their home, every single person will be sitting plugged in to some kind of electronic device, to the extent that there is no face to face communication and one cannot help but wonder if it would be better to have a television and watch selected programmes together as a family! I haven't yet got to the point of this being a real concern (my boys don't have access to electronic devices yet) but I can see it is a concern for the future!
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