Television Harmful to Students’ Academic Potential
As children, we have highly impressionable minds and ambitions. Therefore, their minds are still in the stages of setting up foundations for knowledge and intrigue and it is crucial that children are raised with the compassion for schoolwork and a habit for excellent work ethics. This is important because, even in today’s society, so many
American children watch television habitually in an unhealthy manner and spend an increasing number of hours in stead of more constructive activities. Television is precarious to a students’ potential for education because it consumes precious time that could be spent on schoolwork, encourages inactivity and procrastination and promotes inappropriate themes.
As children watch television more and more frequently, they become routinely accustomed to watching specific shows at certain times and for a certain number of hours.
Most shows span for thirty minutes and if watched excessively, spending time in front of the television will take a dangerous chunk of the students’ time for homework. Precious time that could be spent on schoolwork, exercise or beneficial recreational activities is limited as students become too attached to an ongoing show they ‘must see.’ Once students lose the time to complete homework and studying, grades will undoubtedly suffer. As grades are put aside and left uncompleted, parents and teachers will realize too late that their children are fixated on watching the TV that results in unimpressive schoolwork. With an apt for the long periods of inactivity that usually results from being slouched on a couch, eyes glued to the screen; students will acquire an ungainly laziness and lose focus. Delaying schoolwork to watch shows and spending blocks of hours inactive will develop a habit of procrastination that threatens to diminish the ambition necessary for success. Television should not be seen as a simple substitute of time because it not only takes a toll on the students’ schoolwork but steals their good work ethics as well as fitness of mind and health. Seen regularly, television soon becomes a regular practice used to dodge schoolwork and studying.
Lastly, with over ninety channels on the television, children are subjected to a myriad of images, themes, and languages that are often unsuitable for their age level.
Inappropriate themes can encourage aggressive or brash behavior, and obscene or

frightening images can stir up nightmares in children. I remember as a child seeing the
Hitchcock movie, Marnie. There was a scene where the protagonist was caught in terrorizing struggle with another violent man with explosions of the color red everywhere emulating blood. As of now it doesn’t seems so scary, but as a child with a vast imagination, I often found myself with nightmares of the scene of simple violence.
Unsuitable images and vile slanders can result in a demeanor and habit for cursing, and although this may not have an immediate cost on their education, it will certainly cause problems with the students’ behavior as well as attitude.
Although television is seen as a convenient method to distract children and loosen up, television is precarious to a students’ potential for education because it consumes precious time that could be spent on schoolwork, promotes inappropriate themes, and encourages inactivity and procrastination. In the United States today, television can be seen at the center of the living room in nearly every household, serving as the center point for amusement and rest. Many of us know what it feels like to tiredly amble home, slump on the couch, take the remote control and lazily flick through the channels. But as to any source of entertainment, nothing should ever be used in excess. Television is extremely influential, and this is dangerous to the spirit and mind of the children who are still in the stages of development.