Sesame Street By America Anderson Summary

In Steven Johnson's persuasive essay “Watching Tv Makes You Smarter,” he defies what our culture teaches us about television. Our society teaches that television is making our youth “dumb” and that our culture enjoys the “simple pleasures” so that is what the media companies are feeding us with. But, Johnson states that based on what the show “24” suggests, the “exact opposite is happening: the culture is getting more cognitively demanding, not less” (1). The growing interest of TV programs with complex mental faculties involves three primary elements: multiple threading, flashing arrows and social networks (2).

“Watching T.V. Makes You Smarter” by Steven Johnson is an idea that if we watch T.V, it will make us smarter. In order to support his idea, Steven is comparing the different television shows shown in different time period in the United States television history. Steven is trying to prove, what is good for our children and what is not. Steven believes that television is a tool of brain enhancement. Steven states that instead of keeping the kids away from violent shows or tawdry content, the real challenge for the parents should be whether a given show engages or sedates the mind.

Forms of entertainment are essential to modern education throughout one's life. When one is learning to speak, they watch Sesame Street and learn the letters and numbers with brightly colored puppets. A few years later when the child learns to read, they use picture books (a form of entertainment), or maybe watch Reading Rainbow and follow along with the host. LeVar Burton’s carefree and friendly

In conclusion, television wouldn't quite be the television we know today if it had a limited, narrowed genre of only realistic programs. Television is there to attract the viewers with what they want to see. They may want to watch the news, a reality show, a game show, or most recently many have tuned in to watch the Democratic Presidential Debate. Barbara's idea of television is that without reality or things people can do in real life, boredom is ensured to happen. Despite her claim, television continues to play a big part in not only American culture, but multiple cultures around the

George Comstock a health public educator had studied an average of 2,800 experiments of the television’s influence on behavior. His conclusion pointed that “learning increases when information is presented in a dramatic setting.” Comstock was not the only researcher but Cohen, Solomon, Meringoff and other researchers. These researchers found an opposite conclusion. The researchers experimented with surveys , “Jacoby et al.

Children now think that we should learn by watching television. Postman believes that the only way to really learn is through the traditional methods. Shows such as Sesame Street cause more harm than good. They make the classroom seem even less exciting. I agree with his point on debates and that they could stand to be lengthened so we could get a better idea of what the candidates truly think. But I disagree with his point on education. Yes television can have a negative effect, but not shows such as Sesame Street, and other learning programs. Children learn more from these types of shows then many other methods of teaching.

In the second part of Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, the author examines the medium of education in order to exhibit how it has affected and fashioned modern public discourse. Postman uses a two-part argument on the topic of the influence that television has over education. In order to properly demonstrate the authors view and evidence on this subject of discourse, as well as my own, I will explore how television presents education as well as how exactly television has managed to alter education when it is faced outside of television.

Children will conclude that everything from politics, to religion, or news must be presented to them in an exaggerated and entertaining way. As said, children learn to only love television for the entertainment it provides and begin to find classrooms without edutainment to be a “stale and flat environment.” Giving students the amount of entertainment they want allows them to learn without having any prior knowledge, no challenges, and no exposition. These essential components for the learning process having been replaced by entertainment. Television has completely interfered with school curriculum, therefore transforming it. As educators and teachers began to promote programs such as Sesame Street or The Voyage of the Mimi, more and more of the curriculum being taught was changed to satisfy what children were taught to want in their classroom environments. Postman observed how, “Teachers, from primary grades through college, are increasing the visual simulation in their lessons; are reducing the amount of exposition their students must cope with; are relying less on reading and writing assignments; and are reluctantly concluding that the principal means by which student interest may be engaged is entertainment.” Through this information it is obvious that the standards to which students have to perform has been lowered, television being a contributing

Many of us believe that the television is a medium of entertainment and source of information. Television helps our curiosity because it has a wide variety of channels for

In Postman’s article, Television as Teacher, tells us that television cause people want to have more and more entertainment out of life. He argues that educational television doesn’t teach children like study. Edmundson also says that students don’t like study. They only want to get an easy A

He contends that all television is educational, but that it educates its viewers in the ideology of television. When children learn from a television, they learn only what

In his novel, "Amusing Ourselves to Death", author Neil Postman describes to the reader, in detail, the immediate and future dangers of television. The arguement starts out in a logical manner, explaining first the differences between today's media-driven society, and yesterday's "typographic America". Postman goes on to discuss in the second half of his book the effects of today's media, politics on television, religion on television, and finally televised educational programs. All, he says, are making a detrimental imprint on our society, its values, and its standards. Postman explains that the media consists of "fragment[s] of news" (100), and politics are merely a fashion show. Although Postman's arguments

Over the last forty to fifty years, television has been a major topic of discussion. Specifically, many debate societal benefits to television watching. One widely accepted opinion is that watching TV makes people dumber. People have referred to it with terms like the “idiot box” and do not feel that watching TV has any benefit at all. They feel that it is a waste of time and people need to spend their hours more wisely. Others are of the opinion that TV is actually has societal benefits. From this perspective, they claim that the development of the structure of the programs now requires one to intellectually participate in watching television. Essentially, the argument is whether TV is a beneficial societal force or is it simply a

Leaving aside the negative effects of children’s television, TV learning is not a new activity. Parents have busy lives, which makes it more and more tempting to let their children watch TV. Parents feel more satisfied leaving their kids with trusted television. Although children seem to favor entertainment TV, parents tend to think more positively about educational TV. PBS has

“What is television? What kinds of conversations does it permit? What are intellectual tendencies it encourages? What sort of culture does it produce?” (84) are a few of the questions Postman tries to address throughout the remainder of the book. He wants us to think of television as a medium rather than technology. Postman points out that we do not use television as a communication device, but as an entertainment device. The message of the material has been lost and the entrainment value has become what’s important. Because television is about visuals, it must be rapidly stimulating compared to a book where rational thought is being strategically laid