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- As we get closer to TURNOFF WEEK, more and more people ask about alternatives
to the screen. TRUCE, an organization based in Massachusetts, has come up
with ideas and the many reasons behind them. This material can be copied and
shared and is great for teachers, parents, care givers and anyone who is
interested in doing right by the children in their life. Click here to get
the PDF version of this material.
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TV Selfishness and Violence Explode During “War on Terror”
Second graders discover new trends in TV since 9/11
By Margot Pepper
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/22_03/tv223.shtml
Six years into the “War on Terror,” my second grade Spanish immersion
students found that aggression, selfishness and insults have exploded
on national television.
For the last decade, I’ve had my students at Rosa Parks Elementary in
Berkeley, California analyze television shows preceding National
TV-Off week organized by the TV-Turnoff Network, which this year is
April 21-27. I ask the seven and eight-year-old students to collect all
the data themselves, since I’ve never owned a television. For seven
days, students study a random sampling of about 35 English and
Spanish-language children’s television shows—and one or two soap operas
or reality shows.
The first day of the study, as homework, students shade in a square on
a special graph sheet each time they see hitting, hurting or killing on
half-hour segments of the shows they regularly watch, viewed from
beginning to end. The second day, they focus on acts of selfishness;
the third day, on instances of put-downs and the fourth day, on the
number of times a typical class rule is broken. Finally, in class, four
groups of students compile the data produced by the homework, each
focusing on one of the four variables in the study. But in April of
2007, when I pulled out model graphs compiled by a class in April of
2002—year one of President Bush’s “war on terror”—the contrasts between
their graphs and those produced five years prior shocked my students.
“In a half hour of [the cartoon] ‘Jackie Chan’ in 2002 you would see
hitting 10 times at most,” wrote seven-year-old Flynn Michael-Legg in
the essay I assigned summarizing the findings of our study. “In 2007,
shows of ‘Jackie Chan’ had [up to] 34 hitting scenes.” For the
2001/2002 season, nearly one fourth of the television shows my students
watched had one or no acts of violence at all in one half-hour. Now of
the shows they watch, only That’s So Raven continues to have no
violence, and all other shows have at least three instances of hitting
or violence in one half-hour. Today, nearly half the shows randomly
viewed by my students contain 7 to 34 instances of hitting or other
violent acts each half hour.
The maximum number of put-downs or insults has nearly doubled since
2002, going from 10 in That’s So Raven to 18 in Dumb and Dumber — over
one put-down every two minutes. In Sponge Bob Square Pants, Flynn
pointed out, one would hear at most two put-downs in 2002. Today it’s
16. No shows had more than 10 put-downs in 2002. Now three shows did —
Sponge Bob: 16; Dumb and Dumber: 18; Letty La Fea: 13. Very few shows
have no insults at all any more.
All the shows my students watched in 2007 showed people or characters
being selfish at least once per half-hour segment. From our class rule
to “be considerate and cooperative,” my students interpreted “selfish”
to mean any time a character did something that put him or herself
first at the expense of someone else. In 2002, only three shows had
more than three acts of selfishness in a half hour. Now, 10 did. Half
of the 2007 shows contained five to nine instances of selfishness in
each episode.
Students also found that in April of 2002, only one show depicted the
violation of ordinary class rules — making good decisions: no hitting,
put downs, being unsafe, etc. — 12 or more times. In April of 2007, the
number of such programs rose to six. In 2002, the maximum times class
rules were broken on a given half-hour show was 17. In 2007 the number
of such shows quadrupled with the maximum number of rules broken on a
given show doubling or reaching over 35. The worst offenders with 18
or more broken rules were Sponge Bob; Dumb & Dumber; Jackie Chan
and Phil of the Future—the latter two topping the hitting and
selfishness categories as well.
Whenever students exhibit disruptive behavior, appearing to ape
television—pretend shooting, arms flailing, mouth ceaselessly
chattering gibberish, etc.— I ask them to please turn off the
television in their head if they happen to have left it running.
Students often chuckle and, following my lead, turn off an imaginary
knob around their ear. Now, as we embarked on our study, many of these
students seemed eager to learn more about the television implants I
implied existed in their brains; others appeared enchanted with the
excuse to watch the boob tube as homework. (Every year, one or two
students are excused from the homework due to parental objections to
television viewing or, like their teacher, the absence of a set at
home. They serve as positive roll models and still participate in the
class data analysis.)
After sorting the completed television homework graphs into four piles,
I assigned one variable or “change” (e.g., “violence”) to one of the
four student groups to compile into one of four large rainbow-colored
graphs like the 2001/2 model I had on the board in front of them.
“Which homework graph sheet recorded the highest number of hitting or
hurting instances?” I asked the “blue group” in Spanish. Students
sifted through to find the greatest number of shaded in squares.
“¡Mira! ¡Jackie Chan tiene 34!”(“Look! Jackie Chan has 34!”) Leah
Abramsom voiced her discovery in perfect Spanish, though her
multi-ethnic roots, which include African American and Jewish, do not
include Latina.
For the sake of easy comparison, I wrote “Jackie Chan” on our Violence
Graph in the same color and position relative to its appearance on the
2002 graph. Then, I had a student take a turn to color in 34 squares.
“Let’s put a check by every ‘Jackie Chan’ you see on other homework
sheets because we’re done looking at that program,” I reminded them.
“Now which homework has the next largest number to 34 of violent acts?”
Just as my students had in 2002, the students proceeded through the
pile under my supervision to record the top 16 violent shows, assigning
each a particular color. Regardless of discrepancies in student
perceptions of violence of up to three instances for the same program,
date and variable (the margin of error over the years), just as in
2002, students recorded the highest number of aggressive acts for each
of these shows. After each group of five students completed its
specific group bar graph of findings, and students saw it next to the
colorful 2002 graph of the same variable, they were visibly horrified.
Gisell González clasped hands over mouth to refrain from completing an
exclamation of, “Oh my—”; while others gasped, “Ieeew!”
Ever since the first month of school when we studied opposing points of
view about the so-called discovery (or not) of the Americas, I’ve
encouraged my students to turn to other sources like library books and
the internet to answer questions or prove social studies and science
hypotheses and, the most skilled, to question the sources of their
answers. So when I proposed the internet to support our findings, many
were delighted.
The next day, I rotated each group of five through my English internet
research station around a large computer. The class had decided on the
preliminary Google search terms: “television violence increase.” Though
students controlled the mouse and keyboard, I helped weed out
irrelevant sites and urged them to explore promising ones. We’d scroll
through these until we found something which either the students or I
thought related to our hypothesis about increased violence. Next, I’d
give them time to read paragraphs on the screen to each other.
“Puppies” (native Standard-English speakers) would read the material to
the “Kittens” (Standard-English Language Learners), explaining if
necessary. When they got to a finding, they would let me know so I
could record it on chart paper in the color corresponding to their
group.
Traditionally, in this way, virtually all students have been able to
discover something to share with their group. Usually two students in
each group alight on juicy, complex information and, perhaps because of
the immersion program’s need for translation, are able to simplify
explanations for the rest. The overall quality of research and writing
vocabulary has been extraordinary in part, I think, because of each
group’s heterogeneous composition ranging from one to two high-skilled
students to one or two who are currently performing well below grade
level. Typically, my two-Way Spanish Immersion classes have been
comprised of one-third children of college-educated professionals,
while half qualify for free lunches. About a third are native
Spanish-speakers or Latino children; up to one-fifth African American
children and the rest Euro-American and other minorities.
I had the “green group” explore the TV-Turnoff Network site. The
students clicked on the Real Vision study. “Wow! Kids will have seen
‘200,000 violent acts on television by age 18… and 16,000 murders,’”
Maeve Gallagher was shocked. Some wondered if the increase in
television violence highlighted on the site had led to more real life
killing.
“What words do you think you might see in a report that says killing is related to television?”
They decided on “television + violence + killing.”
“Oh my gosh! ‘TV shows and Video Games Teach Children to Kill!’ Look,
down there!” Ceilidh Welsh was pointing to the screen of search
results. The note turned out to be a footnote in a report on the
Parents Television Council (PTC.) I showed the group how important it
was to trace primary sources and helped them type in the name of the
author of the study, which turned up in a Senate Judiciary Report.
“This is a report by our own government!” Now I was excited, too. We
typed in the report’s title and got the full report entitled “Children,
Violence and the Media.”
“Video Games and TV are ‘teaching kids to kill,’ and ‘teaching them to like it!” Maeve read aloud for us from the report.
“Violence on TV is over 300 times more than before the war!” Students
in the subsequent yellow group were jumping up and down. Well, not
exactly. I darted to the board and shaded parts of pizzas to explain
percentages. This made the concept more understandable to some, but for
most, I had to translate. Using both the internet and fact sheets,
children in the “yellow group” found that according to a 2007 study by
the PTC called “Dying to Entertain,” since 1998, violence on ABC TV has
quadrupled (a 309 percent increase — a huge rise, though not quite the
“300 times” increase students had mistakenly proclaimed.) They found
that in 1998 the network had about one act of violence per hour (.93).
By 2007, it was almost four (3.8) on average. CBS, according to the PTC
study, had the highest percentage of deaths during 2005-6, with over 66
percent of violent scenes after 8 pm depicting death
(http://www.parentstv.org/). Incidentally, the study points out that,
in general, violence in all television shows has shifted to being more
central to the story — with more graphic autopsy or torture scenes —
than it was over five years ago. It indicates that the 2005-6 season
was one of the most violent ever recorded by the PTC.
After each group read its findings aloud, facts discovered by students
in the “red group” persuaded the rest of the class, through a show of
hands, to agree to limit their television viewing, turning it off
completely during the TV-Turnoff Network’s TV-Off week — something they
were reluctant to do when our television unit began. What this group
had discovered, thanks largely to the TV-Turnoff Network’s website
(http://www.tvturnoff.org/) is that there are more televisions (2.73)
in the average home than people (2.55, according to USA Today.) The
average home keeps a television turned on eight hours a day, according
to Nielsen (2006.) Children who watch six or more hours a day perform
worse on reading tests than do those who watch one hour a day or don’t
play video games, reports the Center for Screentime Awareness
(http://www.screentime.org/). And by the time they finish high school,
children will have spent more hours watching TV than in school.
I knew students would brainstorm both absurd and frighteningly astute
reasons to justify the increase of violence and selfishness on
television. My aim was to get these young philosopher-scientists in the
habit of asking ‘why’ about their world instead of merely consuming it
— of making educated hypotheses then requiring multiple sources of
supporting evidence.
During the group discussion, I learned that they were most troubled by
the Senate Report statement that television was teaching them to “like
killing.” The Senate report also found that 10 percent of crimes
committed are caused by violence seen on television. The study, though
predating ours, related the violence they saw on television directly to
their present world.
I asked students if they had noticed an increase in violence in their
world with the increase in television violence. Jacobo McCarthy and
several others fiercely nodded: “Three years ago, I’d only see one or
two kids in trouble in the office now and then; now there’s up to six
or seven,” Jaboco commented. I too have noticed an increase in behavior
problems at the school since 2001, despite better leadership and more
effective intervention. However, increasing poverty and less spending
on social services leading to a rise in domestic or neighborhood
violence could be as equally valid contributors.
“What do you think the reason is behind the increase in television violence?” I asked.
“For brainwashing. TV advertises or sells violence. It influences us to
vote for a president who uses war to solve problems,” Flynn said.
“I suspect the increase in television violence has something to do with
the war on terror.” English-learner Andres Ventura emulated his
classmate Sebastian Anderson’s elevated vocabulary in his summarizing
essay. “By scaring kids and parents and pushing violence, people are
more likely to vote for war. The TV makes you dumb because if you see a
lot, it makes you forget things. It makes parents forget how things
were when they were kids.”
One of the most shocking facts my students found was that according to
the TV-Turnoff Network’s Real Vision project, parents spend only 38.5
minutes a day with their children in meaningful conversation. And more
than half of 4-6 year-olds (54 percent) would rather watch TV than
spend time with their parents.
This finding inspired Alejandro González’s conclusion: “I think George
Bush wants to make people more scared. We know George Bush likes war.
And… TV makes you like more war. What’s scary is kids spend more time
seeing TV than being with their dad. Since our study, I turn off the TV
more and go play with my dad. Maybe the president used to watch more TV
than being with his dad.”
“And if Bush isn’t responsible? Why would television stations or their
advertisers want us to like war?” I asked after reading Alejandro’s
essay aloud.
“To make money, to sell things and make rich people richer like the people selling guns,” Ceilidh said.
“To steal stuff from other countries to make our own country the richest!” Jacobo asserted.
What impact did the students think this increase in television violence and selfishness was having on the world around them?
“TV makes people want violence by making it seem cool,” Ceilidh said.
Sebastian added, “Then they want to be part of the army. It’s a cycle.
TV affects the world, then the world affects the TV, which affects
world violence. It’s a ‘chain reaction of evil,’” Sebastian said,
borrowing from a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote I had them memorize for
Dr. King’s birthday.
“Yeah, TV leads to more fighting. Fighting leads to war,” added
Jacobo. He evoked Dr. King to finish his thought: “’Hate begetting
hate. Wars producing more wars…’ We need to stop or ‘we shall all be
plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.’”
It was a peak teaching moment. Students were assimilating valuable
things they had learned earlier in the year to shape their thinking
about the world. While some of the conclusions tended toward hyperbole,
I can’t argue with the soundness of my students’ hypothesis that
television selfishness and violence are part of a propaganda campaign
to foment war and enrich certain sectors. But more importantly, my
students are learning to think for themselves, to question the sources
of their information.
One of my former students, Daniel Hernandez-Deras once commented that
“watching television replaces your imagination with television thinking
and there’s not much space left after that.” Now my current students
had begun to turn off the televisions in their own brains and turn on
their imagination and curiosity. At last, they had begun to internalize
the insight contained in Maeve’s essay:
“If you watch too much T.V, you lose the kid that is inside you,” wherein lies our higher inner wisdom.
2750 words
Margot Pepper (www.margotpepper.com) teaches 2nd grade in a two-way
Spanish immersion program at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Berkeley,
Calif. Her memoir, Through the Wall: A Year in Havana, was a top
nomination for the 2006 American Book Award.
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