Actually, discussing students viewing habits and debating what they watch is a good way to discuss many things that are close to them such as dating, drugs, peer pressure, societal pressures, home pressures and a whole raft of other things. Now, I’ve been to your site and read your response. What irks me through all this is your position that if I don’t view tv then I am unable to partake in any meaningful discussion about television.
“But we cannot do that — truly we cannot engage our students in a discussion of why a particular show is worth our time or whether we are spending too much time engaged by a particular medium — if, in the backs of our heads, we’re muttering to ourselves, “T.V. is just wrecking these kids,” if we don’t share their curiosity or their tuning to the potential of things. Really we can’t. That kind of disgenuousness is blatant and hypocrisy reeks.”
Now, my next post will discuss this to sort of comment more. However, this is a lifestyle choice. Please tell me that you don’t make such remarks about other people who make lifestyle choices with which you don’t agree? Not only am I taken aback but, as someone who has put up with many a comment because of this lifestyle choice, I’m astounded that you would even suggest that in any way this affects my ability to teach. You’ve very clearly stated that “it’s offered up a nifty personality test for teachers. From my vantage point, this thing really defines you.” Really. My choice to not watch tv defines me? So what does my wife’s and my decision to have 7 children in a world of two children families make us? I’ve been told that we can’t be that smart since “Smart people know what causes that and aren’t like animals, just reproducing.” Yes siree, been said to me in the mall. I actually consider what you’ve commented about teachers who don’t watch tv to be the equivalent. You continue to go on about the personal choices and such – yet have failed to even go near the health and social issues that our societies face because of the amount of time spent watching tv. You make some pretty interesting comments about those of us who have made this life choice and how “truly we cannot engage our students in a discussion of why a particular show is worth our time or whether we are spending too much time engaged by a particular medium — if, in the backs of our heads, we’re muttering to ourselves, “T.V. is just wrecking these kids,” if we don’t share their curiosity or their tuning to the potential of things. Really we can’t.” I’ve made a few illustrations of the absurdity of this but, just out of curiosity, have any kids? Est-ce que tu parles une autre langue? Oui? Non? Ever lost a child? Ever been bullied? Ever had to deal with physical or psycholigical abuse? Ever been beat or had a gun put to your head? How about sexually abused? I could go on and on about the experiences but you get my point. If you cannot talke about something with authority without having experienced it, then what the heck are we doing in schools? And before you pull the “well, they aren’t the same as tv or other medium of expression” I’ll throw in, ever been published, recorded a song, owned a company, …. Oh, the second language my wife, children and I speak is communication. Your blanket statements and sweeping generalizations about non-tv watchers is not different than the generalizations and comments I hear about Native Canadians or Jews or homosexuals. Can’t comment about television, the impact of a show, the context of the show, the message of the medium, the implied message of the writers, etc. In fact, since I teach communication production technology, I actually spend a good deal of time discussing the messages and the manner in which these messages are created to make them more effective with a group of teenagers. Wonder how I do that?

From my blog, where the fire started:

As teachers (again, not as parents), I’d like to see our latent prejudice towards t.v. exposed and dismissed. The sense from the detractors seems to be, “Oh, I don’t mind if my students watch it, but as for me and my family, we don’t touch the stuff,” and that isn’t the same as encouraging one’s students to differentiate a medium’s failures and successes (t.v., music, book, blog, or otherwise) nor does it encourage them to make their own successes.

This is tv. Kids spend five hours of their day on average with it. There are a lot of options in how we as educators (not, I repeat, not as parents or individuals) handle tv.

I think one of the worst ways is to sniff dismissively and say, you guys are just rotting your minds with that crap, and then endorse some TV Turnoff Week program. How can kids learn discernment if we tell them the solution is to throw out the medium they enjoy most?