
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 29, 1995                   TAG: 9505030007
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COLD TURKEY ON BEAVIS ET AL

CRYSTAL SPRING Elementary threw a party Friday night, and with good cause. Practically every student had signed a contract promising to avoid television for five days - in effect, to turn off for just a while the sewer pipe emptying toxic discharges into their living rooms and bedrooms and minds. This past week, most succeeded in fulfilling the pledge.

Good for them, we say, and for the school and its Parent Teachers Association for organizing the event.

Crystal Spring is the second school in the Roanoke Valley, we are told, to stage a formal TV-Turnoff week. Wasena Elementary tried it in 1994. The South Roanoke school's exercise was part of a National TV Turnoff Week which, in case Connie Chung or Oprah forgot to mention it, went on this past week.

It was organized by a year-old group called TV-Free America. In spite of its name, the group isn't trying to convince us to swear off television viewing forever. It's simply urging us to cut back on our couch-potato time so as to rediscover other activities, and each other, in the unplugged world around us.

Not a bad idea, especially for children, given all the studies showing that they're growing physically and mentally flabby from spending an average four hours daily before the set. Not a bad idea, either, given the sex and violence spewing into their heads during mostly unsupervised viewing.

We all know that kids - and adults, too - would benefit from spending fewer sedentary hours absorbing images, and more in active and creative pursuits, even in frivolous fun. Playing hide-and-seek. Painting a picture. Baking a cake. Making a mud pie. Washing the car. Going to the park. Reading a book.

There's also talking to each other, in contrast with television's tendency to isolate us from family, friends and community.

The problem is that addictions are hard to deal with. The Big Turnoff - at least for this week - was a start, getting kids to confront their habits and giving families a taste of TV-less life. Millions of children signed pledges. Some communities and schools made a festival of it.

At Crystal Spring, parents received "survival kits." Students logged five days of their usual television-watching. This week, they kept diaries on their activities in the absence of TV and video games. Last night, they held a victory party for kids who accepted the challenge.

How about every school, every school district, in our region organizing similar TV-turnoff events next year?

by CNB