Time to Turn Off the TV
Children are today’s future. Books contain the secrets to the world. To me, it seems these days that children are continually tossing their books to the corners of their room to sit in front of the TV and that they turn their brains off while watching some pointless show. I see more and more parents encouraging children to sit quietly in front of the TV, avoiding all interaction with each other. Furthermore it seems like when the TV gets old, more parents shove a smartphone, a tablet, or some sort of technology in their face to silence them. What happened to reading a good ’ole fashioned book? If this is the future we are raising, it’s starting to look a lot like the science fiction novels of 50 years ago that predicted technology would take over. Remember Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, with virtual reality TVs on the walls of all the homes brainwashing the citizens?
I recently became an aunt; well, I did eight months ago. When I found out my sister was pregnant, I was excited to finally have a little buddy with whom to share all of my favorite stories and characters. I could show him all of the best literature, and he could be prepared for the real world better than many of us were. The day my sister announced her pregnancy, I immediately went to my favorite bookstore to stock up on the best children’s tales writers: The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Oscar Wilde, to name a few. Every time I visited a bookstore, I went straight to the children’s section in search of new find for my newest buddy.
I gave a few of them to my sister while she was pregnant, so she could read to him in her belly. But she doesn’t find reading attractive, so she found something good on TV to watch instead. So, I waited for him to be born. After not seeing them for a month after his birth, I asked her if she had read him any of the stories. No, I just haven’t had the time. Newborns are time-consuming. I accepted the excuse and waited a while before I asked her again. Well, there aren’t really any pictures for him to look at. And I still haven’t found the time to sit and read to him. While I was in town and I had the time, I went to the closet where she kept them and pulled them down myself. If she wasn’t going to read to him, I would. I pulled the book out, sat in the rocking chair with him, his bottle, and his favorite elephant blanket and read to him the Grimm’s version of Little Red Riding Hood. He sat there staring at me with these eyes that just wondered what these sounds were that were coming out of my mouth; he was listening to me, enjoying it, falling asleep, maybe dreaming of never being an evil wolf. I read to him every time I see him now.
Reading to one’s child allows he or she to be exposed to vocabulary, language, ideas, and imagination at an early age. It gives the child tools to tackle the world. It builds a bond between the author and the reader. It gives the brain a chance to do its job, like it really wants to. The TV can’t engage one like a book can, because a book requires great imagination in order to visualize a scene.
My solution is super cliché, but it’s true: we need to turn off the TVs, even if it’s for twenty minutes a day. Twenty minutes of brain activity and engagement is so much more beneficial than twenty hours of television. I bet if one started with twenty minutes a day, he or she would find some pleasure and want to extend reading time. One day books will regain their role.
