Entertainment and education have been brought together since the early humans sat by the fire and told stories about the history and legends of their tribe. After the invention of television, entertainment and education formed a solid partnership in children's programming, notably PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), the most prominent provider of educational television programming. With the number of hours children spend watching television, Congress has decided that TV stations are responsible for providing educational programs for children.
Following the adoption of the Children's Television Law in 1990, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published its rules to implement the provisions of the above-mentioned law. TV broadcasters must broadcast weekly programs for at least three hours to meet the educational and information needs of children. This so-called core programming must be provided in segments that last at least half an hour, and the amount of advertising that can be shown during these programs is at 12.5 minutes per hour during the week and 10.5 minutes per hour during limited to the weekends.
According to the University of Texas at Austin, preschool-aged children who saw educational programs achieved better results in reading, math and vocabulary exams than their peers who saw general entertainment programs. The more hours of general entertainment the children saw, the lower their scores were.
First broadcast in 1969, Sesame Street is an American children's television series designed to help toddlers prepare for school. A 1996 survey, originally aimed at low-income families, found that 95 percent of all American pre-school children had seen the show when they reached their third birthday. Not only does the show teach children about the letters of the alphabet, it also attempts to model behaviors such as tolerance and non-violent ways of conflict resolution. The format of Sesame Street includes animations, puppetry (Jim Henson's famous Muppets), humor, short films and actors for adults and children. The show has won eight Grammy Awards and more than 100 Emmy Awards.
Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood is another popular children's show. Produced from 1968 to 1976 and then from 1979 to 2001, Fred Rogers showed his audiences crafts, puppetry, science experiments and what goes on in factories. Mr. Rogers's calm and gentle personality played a major role in the speed of the show, and he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in honor of his work in child-rearing.
The New Electric Company is based on The Electric Company, a popular children's television series from the 1970s. The show uses animations, music and sketches and tries to teach the target group of children aged 4 to 8 new vocabulary "bad guys."
National Geographic Channel broadcasts National Geographic Society documentary films exploring the cultures, history, nature and science of the world. Broadcasting in 25 languages in more than 140 countries, the first National Geographic films were screened in 1964. National Geographic's television specials were used to educate adults and children, while explorers such as Jacques Cousteau on his voyages or anthropologist Jane Goodall followed up on chimpanzees.
One of the benefits of educating children through television is the enjoyable acquisition of knowledge and the benefit of not seeing violent shows or programs that are inappropriate for their age. However, the disadvantages include the observation that too much television often leads to overweight. Children who spend hours in front of a TV miss out on physical activities such as jumping rope, playing ball and other traditional sports. In addition, a constant parenting diet through overly stimulating TV shows often makes children bored, restless, and hard to control, forced to watch a teacher who does not turn into colorful numbers and letters on television like others. These two disadvantages can be minimized by limiting the number of children watching television daily.
No comments:
Post a Comment