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Show TV: . 'I he trash teaches also' By James J. Kilpatrick Howard, to insist that TV be not a bad teaci.i r, but a good one. Assuming a median age in the U.S. of 28 6 years Uhe 1974 figure), our people can be divided roughly into two generations, Those who were bom pre TV and post-TV- . to ivcentlv as 1940 got through elementary school under the tutelage of leathers as distinguished from electronic ones. Todays youngsters comprise a ditierent breed entirely. Nielsen surveys indicate that children watch television, on the average, 23 hours and 16 minutes a week. Teenagers watch 19 hours and 49 minutes. The Census Bureau says that 96.6 percent of our households have at least one television set, and 45.4 percent have two or more. The figures, Howard remarks, "are a measure of the real importance of television in the lives of young people in today's culture." "It is not that boys and girls want only to be entertained or that they are iPterly incapable of enici taining thcmaihi. Tele vision is ubiquitous. If ever kids had a frame ol reierence, they have one now m television, which provides them with the language, the models, and the tastes they share with each other. Whether adults like it or not, television is their medium. Exeept when it turns to efforts that are the dawn classes deliberately educative in ulgeln a. physics and histury television seldom is thought of in teaching terms. The medium functions primarily as a medium of entertainment and advertising. Its news d People have been worrying about the impact of television on our society almost from the day the first image flickered on the tulie. In recent months that concern suddenly has mounted The medium, it is thought, has become a monster. Thus Newsweek magazine devoted Us cover story a couple of months ago to a somber recounting of TV's mesmerizing effect on children. A new book is out, by .Marie Winn, describing television us "the plug-i- n drug." Various parents, psychologists and social critics have inten--.iiie- d their cry against excessive violence. number of advertisers, feeling the pressure, have asked the networks to ease black-and-whi- up. In the current Bulletin of the Council for Basic Education, James M. Howard Jr. entures some sensible observations on the situation. More than most of us have realized, television has become not just a teacher," but "The Teacher," influencing the language, the lives and the attitudes of nearly the whole population. It is the primary responsibility of parents, says 4 .J.i .i.- - programs, pervasive as they are, occupy only a small part of the daily schedule. Howard's point is that in one way or another, subtly or blatantly, The Teacher is teaching all day long Surely much of the teaeh'ng is good and constructive. That needs to be emphasj7ed because the network moguls have been absorbing more denunciation than they truly deserve. The child who has watched Lome Green's Last of the Wild or the Jacques Cousteau series on marine life has not wasted his time. And the networks seem to be trying. CBS has a new Saturday morning' magazine called Razzmatazz." ABCs "After School Specials and NBC's occasional "Special Treats" amount to good teaching. Grizzly Adams is becoming a folk hero as inspiring as Davy Crockett. Bui when that has been said it has to be aid that a vast deal of trash remains and the trash teaches also. If parents teachers in discovered that ibur local public schools were ignorant, unqualified, incompetent purveyors of trash, the parents would raise cain. At least one would like to think the parents would rash into action to protect their children. This is what Howard is urging. 'in the tirst analy sis and in the iasi," he writes, "responsibility and opportunity reside with parents. They cannot stop TV irom teaching; but only at the risk of dreadrul consequences will they permit their own TV sets to he bad teachers." d That night changed his life To the editor; There is a young man in Provo who three vears ago put down his bottle and has not had a drink since that day. Now that is something when you remember he had been drinking all his life. One day he realized his wife and two children would not stay with him much longer if he continued on the path he was going. He had good reason to drink, he thought. He was trying to raise two little children alone. I'm suie he had many sad evenings alone with his guitar and his memories. But then one night the little boy said he was scared when daddy had been drinking and he said he wanted to go away Hide a These env ironmentalists have gone entirely too cottonpicking far. On your April 21 editorial page you reprinted an editorial from the Montgomery Peninsula Herald which state that the energy shortage could be alleviated by building "wind turbine generators with rotor blades 350 feet long . . positioned away from the general public view. If they build these things with rotor bladc-s- , I want to see them. Especially il they're built with my money. That would be higher than a building. I guess next theyre going to want to hide n dams, lines, copper mines, coal mines, or maybe itiey re aireauy on to that. etc. It's the same mentality that says that oil well derricks or pumps shouldn't be seen from the highway. Every time I drive through eastern Utah with my kids, we all get a big kick out of looking for the oil wells and marvelling at how these funnylooking frog-lik- e contraptions can blithely sit there and pump oil Irom the earth. Blair Orem Kcnnecott. These same environmental characters want to turn the whole West into a chipmunk and coyote refuge, not that a few chipmunks are all that bad, or even a couple of coyotes. If theyre so worried about chipmunks and such, of why dont they complain about the mass-killin- g groundhogs at Mountain Dell and George Washington Grove every year? Last spring the kids and I counted 18 dead carcasses, and this year we could hear the 22 s going again. I say if the environmentalists want a cause, here's a legitimate one worthy of their efforts. S. Parker Gay, Jr. high-tensio- editor There are not enough words to express our gratitude to the throe men who came to our rescue Saturday , April 3t), when iny car caught fire on Stale To the readers: I'lle New DtMTi'l welt unit", i e.iders coil li ilmluuis to the I in uni them in a 1 am Maine alld she's faithful; F shes intelligent; O I ' D shes dear; shes Jean M. Goalen ours. special way. Mr. and Mrs. L. E. Spencer 116 W. 8th South 4705 W. 4715 South 1 Those fluoride tablets DESERET SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Editorial Office. 30 E 1st South Advertising and Circulation 143 S Main St. Salt Lake City, Utah Sam NEWS D the editor Established June 15, 1850 Published each evening Second ass postage paid at Salt Lake City, Utah. The Destrat News Publishing Company assumes no responsibility tor manuscripts and photographs contributed Photogreons and articles may be reprinted only with written c Regarding the article ffered," Deseret News, April "Fluoride 29: options o- permiss'on given Dr. Orson Wright, Utah State Dental director, who stated "No Utah schools as yet use fluoride tablets " was wrong. Harris Elementary in Tooele has used them for two years at 23 cents per child per year. Just chalk it up as another official who doesn't have his facts straight Please lie as cullclst' as possible, alld HR llillc v 1 hoH 1 had the presence of mind to thank all three of them, but I dont rememlier. One of the men stayed and helped my husband push the car out of the traffic and onto a parking lot. DESERET To take exception to the article in the Deseret News saying Fido is a lousy name for a dog. Our Fido is rather proud of her name, especially when we tell people what her name means to us. 1 May the good Lord bless each of Another man mme up with a fire extinguisher and still a thwd mail took the time to stop to see if h could help. Tu To the editor; guess I was in a state ol shock as didn't get their names, but we just can't thank them enough especially the man who got there first and put the flames out so quickly hi. we. Wav Fido's okay 1 My Barbara 3801 Auto saved from fire man and loved his son and would never hurt him, but the little boy didn't know that. Mrs Ruth B. I say the real problem will come when we wake up one merning and theres no smoke coming from 350-to- husband boat at the flames around the air filter, hut to no avail. In just seconds after we had stopped, a man in a blue truck stopped and used his fire extinguisher to put out the night and asked them to come and help him. They stayed most ol the night and talked with him. That night changed his lile. He moved his family from a rented house to a home where the money he had used for drinking paid his house payments. Ken-neco- tt . Street. The man railed some people at A. A. at mid- Then the kids want to know how you get the gasoline, which leads to a long discussion about refineries, pipelines and other marvels of our free enterprise system. And the environmentalists are always complaining ahout the smoke from To tiie editor. with their new mamma. The father was a good windmill? 350-fo- ot Jan addl'c's in advance NEWS registered as U S trademark CARRIER DELIVERY RATES One month (daily only) One montn (daily and Sunday) MAIL DELIVERY S2 75 4 SO RATES Daily only (Utah. 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