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Saturday, March 19, 2011
Why I want my kids to have public media
I usually try not to go too political on this blog, but there’s something going on in Washington that’s got me all riled up.
When I first heard about the House of Representatives slashing funding to public media, including National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I thought I heard wrong. I’ll touch on NPR in a moment, but as someone who ditched cable over three years ago, I had to ask, “Who hates PBS?”
I spend most of my TV-viewing time watching PBS. Cooking shows like America’s Test Kitchen and Simply Ming. Home improvement shows like This Old House and Victory Garden. Craft and artisan shows like The Joy of Painting and Woodwright’s Shop. Travel shows like Rick Steves’ Europe and Smart Travels with Rudy Maxa. Informative shows like NOVA and Antiques Roadshow. Documentaries and series about a variety of topics, some of which I didn’t even think would interest me until I started watching. Adaptations of classical and theatrical masterpieces — I actually once stopped in the middle of vacuuming to watch opera.
As I’ve mentioned before, I work at night, so my “prime time” TV hours are between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Coincidentally, these are the hours in which young children (preschool and kindergarten) would be watching TV, so I’m seeing what they would be seeing. In my opinion, the quality of programming on PBS far exceeds that of the alternatives in that time slot.
I don’t have children yet, and at 23, I have no intention of having them soon. But when I do, I know I’d rather have them watching Curious George or Between the Lions than The Price is Right, or The Young and the Restless, or Judge Joe Brown, or reruns of old sitcoms. Even better, I’d prefer to have them watching these shows uninterrupted by flashy advertisements for cheap plastic Made-in-China toys and sugar-loaded snacks and cereals. (I will say, I’ve seen the same ThinkTV promos so many times I know some of them by heart, but that’s still better than having a commercial jingle stuck in my head.)
I was an inquisitive, curious kid, and I loved to watch educational programming like Bill Nye the Science Guy, Reading Rainbow and The Magic School Bus. I was already learning to read before I started kindergarten at age four - and no, I didn’t go to preschool. As I grew up, I was an excellent student, and I can now call myself an Honors graduate who completed her bachelor’s degree in three years, Summa Cum Laude.
I’m not saying all this to toot my own horn, and I’m not saying I only turned out this way because of PBS. I watched plenty of other shows with no intellectual merit, after all. But I do strongly believe that the wealth of educational programming available to me at a very young age fostered in me a desire to learn, learn, learn as much as I could. My parents supported this by stressing good grades, taking me to museums, helping me on science fair projects and quenching my thirst for books. Education is extremely important to me, and I want my children to value it, too. I want them to want to learn, about EVERYTHING, the way I did. Knowledge truly is power.
I understand the country is in a budget crisis right now. Sacrifices must be made. But completely zeroing out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not the answer. It’s just an extreme measure used to stir up controversy and distract from other issues. Once the CPB is gone, who knows if we’ll ever get it back? What will happen to all those employed in the creation of these programs? Go ahead, cut the funding some, but don’t kill it entirely - especially not while funding for the Pentagon to sponsor NASCAR teams stays intact.
(I have other things to cover, so I’m not even going to touch on all of the other great things PBS does in the community and for parents and teachers. Suffice it to say that it’s not just about TV, it’s about enriching one’s quality of life.)
I had never listened to National Public Radio until I was 18 and in my second year of college. Until then, I had assumed it was just talk radio, and the last thing I want to do is listen to people argue with each other. But then my husband (fiance at the time) introduced me to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and Car Talk, and I ate it up. I bought a portable radio to keep in the bathroom so I could listen to WWDTM while I was in the shower. Although I may not have learned anything important about cars from Ray and Tom Magliozzi, my imitation of a Boston accent is much more convincing nowadays. (The Bostonians on This Old House have also helped in that regard.)
As to the bias issue, I think a lot of it depends on your local station, which in turn reflects the politics of the area. Here in Dayton, I’m in no more danger of being “liberalized” by listening to NPR than I am by shopping at Trader Joe’s. And let’s throw all the angry rhetoric aside: liberalism and conservatism are not diseases. They’re just different points of view and value systems. Robert Segal and Rush Limbaugh each pose the same threat to my ability to vote my mind - which is NONE. If the way the news is being presented by a particular news outlet offends you, don’t watch/listen/read. All I ask is that you don’t infringe on your neighbor’s right to watch/listen/read if it pleases him.
To conclude: I know public media is not the country’s No. 1 priority. It doesn’t have a direct impact on national security, or jobs creation, or crime prevention, or combating illegal immigration, or lowering the national debt. What it does do is encourage people, children and adults alike, to think. Go ahead and call me an elitist liberal if you want, but I’m a strong proponent of thinking.
If you never watch PBS, I challenge you to find some time for it this weekend. If you never listen to NPR, I encourage you to turn on All Things Considered on your drive home from work on Monday or peruse NPR.org on your lunch hour. If you can find absolutely no value in either facet of public media, come back to this blog and make your case. I’m not afraid to hear opposing points of view. Diversity is what makes this country great.
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