At a party a few years back, another guest asked what I did, and I told him about the network of charter schools I founded in Harlem. Then he told me he’d created the TV show “Survivor.”
“Oh,” I said. “What’s it about?”
I don’t remember Mark Burnett’s reaction, but our host burst out laughing and proclaimed me “the only person in America who hasn’t seen that show.”
The College Board, maker of the SAT college-entrance exam, would seem to agree. It kicked up a stir recently by making reality-TV the subject of an essay question: “How authentic can these shows be when producers design challenges for the participants and then editors alter filmed scenes?”
The controversy has mostly focused on the fairness issue — are kids who watch no reality TV at a disadvantage? But the real issue is what the question reveals about our values and our vision for a “college ready” student.
The SAT is one of the most basic common denominators in American society, meant to test the aptitude of all high-school students. What are we to conclude, then, when
the things that bind us are shows like “The Bachelor” and “Jersey Shore”?
Most kids spend way too much time watching TV. According to Nielsen Co., the average American child spends 1,500 hours a year in front of the television.
And you don’t have to be a sociologist to see the effect of shows like “16 and Pregnant” on children and teenagers. It desensitizes them to exactly what they should be sensitive: violence, sex, romance, language. Their minds, easily captivated, become fixated on meaningless drivel.
Then there’s the issue of time. TV time means less time playing, reading for pleasure, or engaging in wholesome activities like dance, community service or sports. Plus, otherwise naturally curious kids become dependent on TV to entertain them.
And the vast amounts of time spent staring at a box, rather than playing with friends and making conversation with family, can inhibit healthy emotional development.
As a working mother of three, I decided to raise our children with virtually no TV. Most days, they spent their free time playing games (cards, Scrabble, charades, Boggle), gardening, painting, playing guitar, throwing a football and reading for pleasure. When I became a single mom, I sometimes needed a break, so I gave them a crossword puzzle, checkers or chess.
Every Sunday night was family-reading night. We’d spread out a big blanket, eat popcorn and read together as a family for hours.
When my children fell in love with Roald Dahl, I posted part of his poem “Television” on our refrigerator, where it stayed for eight years:
TV rots the senses in the head It kills the imagination dead It clogs and clutters up the mind It makes a child so dull and blind His brain becomes as soft as cheese He cannot think — he only sees
In 2003, when my son started ninth grade, he came to me incredulous that a few of his friends were constantly complaining that they were bored. He couldn’t understand it, he felt he didn’t have enough time for all of his interests — bird watching, playing guitar and photography, to name a few — and believed that the reason he had so many is because he never watched TV.
That same year, we opened our doors to our first class of students at Harlem Village Academies. We told our children that we expected them to read a book a week — for pleasure! This was on top of their required reading and homework.
Some people claimed we were out of touch. But I’ve found just the opposite. Our teachers are so in touch with what children need and deserve, and they make it their mission to find things, especially books, that our kids are passionate about.
We don’t have a zero-tolerance TV policy, but we do work hard to inspire our students to spend their free time reading and doing creative, fun and meaningful activities. We now require and inspire all of our students to read 50 books a year for pleasure — and the kids rise to our expectations.
Rather than answering trivial questions about “Survivor,” our kids should be writing about novels like “Robinson Crusoe” and their own authentic tales of endurance.
Deborah Kenny is founder and CEO of Harlem Village Academies. On Twitter, she’s @DeborahKennyHVA.