Throughout this essay, Postman talks about how much television has been taken as a mix of entertainment and information. He especially talks about how television affects children, such as when their parents place them in from of a TV thinking a show will give them an education on what they’ll need to learn. The author gives Sesame Street, as an example of a show that parents think will benefit their children by watching. Little do they know that it is anything but benefiting. Placing your child in front of a TV is just teaching the child to watch more television. Neil Postman puts up an argument exclaiming that “we now know that Sesame Street undermines what the traditional idea of schooling represents” (422) He goes on to say that “Sesame Street appeared to be an imaginative aid in solving the growing problem of teaching Americans how to read, while, at the same time, encourages children to love school only if school is like Sesame Street” (422)
Watching a show such as Sesame Street makes children like the way Sesame Street teaches, which is a lot different than how a real school works. There are plenty more television shows such as this one that do not benefit children across America. While comparing classrooms to television shows, Postman states, “A classroom is a place of social interaction, the space in front of a television set is a private preserve. Whereas in a classroom, one may ask a teacher questions, one can ask nothing of a television screen. Whereas school is centered on the development of language, television demands attention to images” (422)
The most important thing anyone can learn, especially children, is in fact how one learns. If children are placed in front of a TV to “learn” then they will learn what the television teaches them. Postman later goes on to explain what he calls the “three commandments that form the philosophy of the education which television offers.” These commandments mean that nothing will be taught on TV that cannot be both visualized and placed in a theatrical context. Postman’s overall message was that trying to give children an education in front of the TV isn’t as affective as having them learn in a classroom. It is more efficient for a child to be in front of a teacher, rather than a TV,
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