Last night, my husband and I went on a mini-Mythbusters binge. We’d had some episodes backed up on the DVR and decided what the heck.
So why am I writing about this again, especially since Mythbusters is on Wednesday nights and this is Tuesday? Well, aside from the fact that Mythbusters is probably on as some point today (given the way they endlessly repeat that show), I was thinking about TV, in general, today, and realized that sometimes we, as parents are working at cross-purposes here when it comes to the tube.
I mean, think about it. So much of TV for kids, especially for our youngest viewers, is supposed to be educational. Yet, when our kids aren’t involved, we mostly use TV for entertainment. Yes, there are those of us who look to news programming and such for information. But most folks, myself included, when it comes to the end of a long day, are flipping the thing on to relax and be entertained.
And there is nothing wrong with that. We all need to occasionally turn off our brains and relax. Including our kids, I might add. Which is why there’s a place for SpongeBob SquarePants – not on my TV because I find the character insanely grating. But I certainly get that some kids like him.
What makes Mythbusters – and a significant chunk of Discovery Channel programming – so phenomenal is that they’ve found a way to make science programming genuinely fun. Not just interesting, but fun. I’d like to see someone do that with history programming because as any historian knows, history is not just dates and wars but people stories and those can be hysterical good fun.
And, yes, we all learn faster when the subject is fun. This is not to diss those times when we just have to buckle down and get through the hard parts. We have to learn how to do the math in chemistry or things will blow up that shouldn’t. We have to learn the dates and presidents and kings in history or things won’t entirely make sense. But using the fun of a show like Mythbusters to ignite an interest in science helps, too.
We just can’t depend on the Discovery Channel or any TV to do it all. The real key is to keep that sense of wonder about things alive, to get excited about learning things. That’s something TV can only do in small parts. We, as parents, have to model that and that means being excited and curious about things, ourselves.
So, turn off the TV tonight and act out a scene from Shakespeare or the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Or figure out something to do with baking soda – I’m sure there are all kinds of experiments on the Internet that can start you off. I’ll even let you do the digging. Or dig a hole in your yard to find out how far down you have to go to hit water. TV is only the starting point.
Anne Louise Bannon
yourfamilyviewer.com