Do you know for sure whether TV viewing is friendly or vicious? To my mind, it is rather a debatable point. One can’t ignore the fact that we can hardly imagine our life without television since we accept TV as casually as we accept the house we live in, electricity, cars, etc. So do our dearest children.
No doubt, there are some important positive influences of TV. It is television which exposes children to different places and people. Besides, there are lots and lots of educational programs which enlarge viewers’ outlook. However, parents and teachers agree that all young people growing up with the media learn sometimes more than adults wish them to. Isn’t it the cause for alarm?
Scientists have found out that watching TV is psychologically addictive. As a matter of fact, the impact of it is very strong. Television! Children cannot do without. They can goggle into the box for hours mesmerized and spellbound while traditional childhood activities pass them by. Isn’t it awful?
One more thing to be noted, children find thriller, crime, horror films quite appealing. Unfortunately, a developing and vulnerable human organism perceives and absorbs everything like a sponge. Before youth have established their own value systems and are able to make moral judgments, the media promote drugs, sex and violence as an acceptable lifestyle. Television is dulling viewers’ reaction to violence. That’s why children become indifferent to blood and murder. Moreover, they commit crimes and in some cases just out of curiosity.
Today parents and teachers face quite a difficult and almost insoluble dilemma. The thing is they can’t do a thing with their children as they have become so addicted to TV that nothing else interests them. They don’t have enough patience and eagerness for their studies because today’s juveniles want everything as fast and entertaining as TV.
Who can help the TV victims? Parents? Well, it depends. As we know, parents in Russia are too busy with earning money or they don’t get fairy well with their daughters and sons. For this reason there is nothing for children but take to this particular experience.
I believe, it’s up to devoted and considerate teachers to find a way out. Why not follow a good example of French teachers and start training our students to do away with useless and excessive information which skilfully destroys the nervous system of a child and makes vicious changes in his mind.
Now, I think it’s time to share my teaching experience. During our classroom activities we make performances devoted to different problems like environment protection, advantages and disadvantages of watching TV, smoking and drug addiction, etc. For instance, we have recently staged a puppet-show “Smoking and drug addiction” in which we described a process of becoming addicted to smoking. The students did their best trying to make the performance true to life and they managed to leave a deep and lasting impression on the audience. The students took pains to explain that smoking and cancer, drugs and death go side by side. I’m sure, all their efforts were not in vain.
I’d like to add that my aim is not only making students master language skills but also become really concerned about urgent problems of our life and display great enthusiasm about the topics under discussion.
So, if teaching is your cup of tea then you are given a free hand to use all practical teaching techniques and encourage your students to become keen and observant learners. Success attend you!