One of the things I found interesting in the article is the explanation of how Sesame Street came to be. It came from the Lyndon Johnson presidency(maybe my favorite president). I think it's interesting that teachers began to blame Sesmae Street for kids misbehaving badly in their classrooms. However, a quote at towards the end of the article made me think about it a different way. It says: "It makes sense that the teachers whose role was threatened by the television version of education would fear this powerful rival." (594) Perhaps teachers just felt threatened by this new program since the article mentions that there has been no evidence to support there claims. At first, it would be easy to assume that teachers should be able to tell if there is a change in their students. However, it may have been them just jumping to conclusions.
The article doesn't really say if televsion shortens a person's attention span. It does have a quote from a well-known movie director who began his career in television. Sydney Pollock explains: "In television, you are always fighting for the viewer's attention." (592) However, that may just be because of the form of telesvion. There are commercial breaks and most programs are only half-an-hour long. I used to think that there was no question that television shortens a person's attention span but it does teach kids a lot of things so I'm not sure which is more important. This article also mentions that there is no evidence to support the idea that televsion shortens a person's attention span so my conclusions may have been hasty and unfounded.
I also found it interesting how the teachers were so quick to blame a television show for having to deal with students with low attention spans. In some respects, I think the teachers are truly just using television as a scapegoat to make up for their inept teaching capabilities. On the other hand I think there is some truth to the argument, kids today really don't have that much of an attention span, especially the ones who watch television; but have they ever? In my honest opinion I'm not too sure kids that age have ever been able to concentrate or sit still for too long. I can remember when I was a kid a 45 minute drive felt like days, now, I drive 6 hours to get home an it passes by not quickly but it certainly does not feel like days.
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