For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 18, 2014

You don’t have to turn in on, you know.

When I was a little kid, my parents set strict limits on what my bro and I could watch, and how many hours we were allowed to see. So we had plenty of time to read and be read to…

TV: Window on the Vast Wasteland

And now, Grandpa reads to granddaughter.

When I was growing up, we’d have the tv on and we’d all sit there reading. Radio with pictures, sort of.

My dad refused to buy an idiot box, but people at church thought we were poor, and kept trying to give us one. Finally, there was a donation he felt he couldn’t refuse without social consequences – so he stuffed it the corner of the attic. We had to sneak up to the attic with an extension cord to rot our brains.

Our house has never had a TV (never missed it), but our kids sneak over to friends houses to watch junk, some quite poisonous.

When we got our first TV, there was no 24 hour per day broadcast. We had just a test pattern most of the time, and they played the national anthem every night at sign-off. We didn’t have to worry about limiting the exposure, the stations did it for us (we lived near LA, one of the larger broadcast markets).

My dad used to read to us once in a while. I remember a really long story that he broke up into several installments, and we were eager to hear the next part the following evening.

When my children was little they did get to watch TV. But yet would read at least to one of them a book during the day. My son would bring out his favorite book and sit on my lap to read to him. His sister did not require reading to she always had patterns when ready for bed time. I did get to read to her as when possible. Now days my daughter loves to read but son does not. I like to read.

Perfect expression on Grandad’s face in the last panel.

I knew a family once with 4 little kids and the mother called the TV her “babysitter”.

Due to the number of wrestling shows (Back when they actually wrestled) in the early days, we called it the “Groan Box.”

My sister wouldn’t have a TV in the house when they first came out. However, the kids were allowed to watch when visiting someone with one.On one visit, they were watching one show, and when it went off, one the kids blurted out, “My Friend Flika is on the other channel!”

But the chances of the kids watching educational and entertaining shows are very slim.

TV programs are really just another kind of books. Many tv programs are superior to most books. I myself don’t have television that broadcasts, but I watch videos (which complete the transition to “book with sight and sound” full circle) and would rather binge watch a complete season of some fantasy-sf show than read a Charles Dickens or John Steinbeck snooze fest. At the time when this comic strip came out, good video-tape options included The Wizard of Oz, The African Queen, Singing in the Rain, Mary Poppins, the first 3 Star Wars movies, and the first 2 Indiana Jones movies.

There are maybe 25 “essential” movies which kids under 10 should be allowed to see, plus a few more movies or tv programs. Then more can be added as they grow older. But keep it to video, so you don’t get enslaved by the tv schedules of having to watch whatever happens to be on at the station’s choice. This is one reason why I abandon broadcast tv in favor of videos and internets only. My ideal list of essential movies, which varies in my own mind constantly, is a balanced view of cultural and cinematic history. I think it is important for children to eventually read/watch books/movies their parents might not approve of (e.g. Harry Potter type books), because that is only a subjective point of view. Objective information sometimes requires multiple points of view, which might not agree with each other, to be considered.

I’m actually feeling a little jealous of some friends of mine. I don’t remember my father ever reading to me when I was a kid and I barely remember my mother reading to me, it wasn’t until I started reading on my own that I learned to enjoy books. For Christmas I bought my friends 2 children some books that I think they’ll enjoy, the youngest one is getting the first 4 books of the Encyclopedia Brown books and a few weeks ago I gave him one of the later books that I had lying around. As soon as I gave him the book her turned to his dad and said, “can we read it together?” A nearly lost art, may it make a comeback.

Best thing about reading a book us you don’t get any commercials!