televsions effect

Neil Postman starts off by explaining how television is being used as an attractive and seductive medium to make children to like school with shows such as Sesame Street. He describes how in a classroom setting allows the student to participate in asking questions and being interactive, while television lures the children with stimulating, colourful and creative images. Neil Postman than compares the difference in learning behaviours between the classroom setting and sitting in front of the television, which is the problem that is facing America today. Television does not encourage children to go to school but also affects their cognitive and social developmen

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It is taking away the traditional way of classroom learning, of how to interact with other people and respecting your elders. Interacting with others learned in classrooms and other is something that can never be replaced by images on a screen.

I agree with Postman that television as a teaching device is not all that great, also with its entertainment programs only encourages people to love television more, but it also depends on the viewer.

Neil Postman continues on with his idea on how children should learn. Young children like moving pictures such as videos over still pictures found in books as it is more entertaining, which leads back to the same question of television being more for entertainment purposes. Television shows such as Sesame Street did not teach one those things, but it did teach children letters, words, numbers, classification and other skills considered to be important for school success. By watching television, the children are only expected to play a viewer role, while not realizing the familiarity of their role as a student in a classroom.

Neil Postman has made it very clear of what television is doing to the educational system.

Television is more and more becoming a curriculum as pointed out by Postman. Some things that are found in text books might never be able to be expressed on a screen, but images of solid objects and the sound they might produce can.

Television has its positive and negative influences on children’s intellectual development and behaviour, but television as a medium does not have clear effects on patterns of cognition or achievement. The final commandment is “Thou shalt avoid exposition like the ten plagues visited upon Egypt. The effects depend on the nature of the programming. ” If the show becomes confusing and the viewer doesn’t understand, one can simply just change the channel.

Common topics in this essay:
Neil Postman, Sesame Street, Egypt Postman, , America Television, neil postman, Amusing Activity, thou shalt, commandment thou shalt, children school, postman television, sesame street, creative images, classroom setting, commandment thou,

Approximate Word count = 712
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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