Term Paper on Endangered Minds by
Dr. Jane Healy Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About
It
Ms. Healy outlines the escalating crisis in education and examines the effect of
television, video games and other components of popular culture on the ability
of children to concentrate, take in and study information. She discusses brain
development in children at great extent. She cites some of the studies that
point out those children, who view Sesame Street on a customary basis, put
across shorter attention spans than those who do not view such programming.
Healy raises a lot of issues that readers would never have thought about. How
brain wave monitors were hooked up to kids watching TV and what happens. That
kid’s concentration span over the decades is eroding and she believes TV, with
its quick base shows have a lot to do with it. Videos are progressively working
their way into childhood bedtime rituals, and some parenting experts are worried
that they will substitute more conventional, cherished ways of getting children
to sleep. These are frightening implications. It is specifically this
possibility that disturbs Jane Healy, an educational psychologist and educator
who lives in Vail, Colo.
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According to Healy certainly this will work to get children to sleep, author of
``Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds and What We Can
Do about It'' and ``Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can
Do about It.'' Healy points out that parents will use it. But the downstream
implications of habituating a child to this kind of stimulation are very scary.
Children need to learn to soothe themselves, and to respond to and be soothed by
other human beings. The most frightening thing is that this will be used during
the toddler years, a critical period in the development of circuits in the
brain. Interactions during this time significantly determine how a child is
going to relate emotionally for the rest of his life.
Although her own children are grown, Healy points out she vividly remembers how
difficult it can be to get a child to settle down for the night. There are times
as a parent when you're about past your level of coping, but that's the time to
stick it out. The worst way to use a video like this is to let a child fall
asleep in front of it. But I wouldn't recommend having a video as any part of a
child's bedtime ritual. During that time, children can wind down by playing a
quiet game or looking at a book.
Appeal aside; educational psychologist Jane M. Healy is alarmed about
television's influence on the intellectual lives of the young. Television,
according to her, can be partially responsible for the difficulty we're having
in bringing our children up to standards in academics.
A former teacher, Ms. Healy works with educators and parents to understand media
and children's development. She also is author of "Endangered Minds: Why
Children Don't Think - and What We Can Do about It." "Anything that a child does
for any length of time is going to make subtle alterations in the ways their
brains are set up," says Ms. Healy from her home in Vail, Colo. "What I was
seeing as a teacher was an alarming decline in children's listening skills and
ability to express themselves in words and focus if it wasn't easy and quick and
fun." She continues, "This medium has the potential to be educational but also
has the potential to erode learning skills in children . . . The first thing you
need to realize is that if [your child] watches too much TV, he probably won't
be that great in school." But there are shows that parents laud as
"educational". But Healy points out that television are a long way away from a
volunteer effort to teach children to read. That we see our children as a huge
market and will try to sell lifestyles, products and attitudes to them
irrespective to what it's doing to their minds is a sign that we're in for
trouble in the future. Keeping children busy is one way to combat TV
overexposure, but parents have several other weapons in their arsenal, including
the ratings system.
Called the TV Parental Guidelines, these ratings have been adopted by the TV
industry to help parents select appropriate programs for their children.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, channels that have agreed to
use the guidelines air a rating symbol for 15 seconds at the start of each
program. The ratings also may be found in local TV listings.
For example, a show rated "TV-Y" is designed for a young audience, including
ages 2 to 6, and is not expected to frighten younger children. The next ratings
level is TV-Y7, which is deemed OK for children 7 and older who can
differentiate between fantasy and reality. And so the ratings go, all the way to
TV-MA, for "mature audiences." Ms. Healy, the educational psychologist, concedes
that opinion. TV can be a very educational experience in many cases if you sit
down with your child and have a conversation about it, even if it’s a lousy
program. For parents of small children, the proliferation of cyber technology
leads to questions about the role computers should play in education, family
time, entertainment and more.
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Dr. Healy, author of the best seller Endangered Minds, spent 24 months assessing
the role computers play in children's lives. The book, which tries to debunk the
myth that kids with computer experience learn more or learn better, offers
parents insight into the pros and cons of computer learning and entertainment.
It also outlines suggestions for parents considering adding more or less
computer power to their children's lives. Despite all the warnings about how TV
turns kids into zombies and terrorists, here's some welcome news: Many
psychologists and educators now believe that the tube can actually have a
positive effect on children. The list of TV's potential benefits is surprisingly
long, in fact. However, Healy states that for TV viewing to be constructive,
parental discretion and involvement are essential.
As Jane Healy, author of "Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don’t Think and
What We Can Do About It" (Simon & Schuster), says, " If you are bringing up kids
who like to read, play outside and enjoy games, hobbies and puzzles, a little
bit of unsupervised TV-watching every now and then probably won't hurt them."
Research shows that a parent's comments and criticisms can enhance a child's
understanding of a show tremendously. But let's face it; there are times when
parents need to use their children’s television viewing time to get things done.
And that's OK, as long as they try to watch television with their kids at least
some of the time and as long as they make sure the shows children watch alone
are well crafted and age-appropriate.
References
Healy, Jane Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About
It," by Jane M. Healy, Touchstone Books, 1999.
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