by Stephen B.

Created on: August 05, 2008

The mind of a child is much like a muscle that needs to be conditioned into a strong part of the body. As powerful as the brain is, there can still be issues with laziness that are extremely hard to turn around without aggressive workouts. Television is not one of the workouts that the brain needs even as much as Sesame Street is an amazing tool for parents that is quite enjoyable to young ones. A child can not learn to use the imagination or concentrate with the television because it does all the imagining for them, and every 8-10 minutes there is a nice break with 30 second loops of toys and snacks.

The brain does not get enough stimulation in the right areas from television which causes them to loose the power to concentrate for extended periods of time, somewhere around 8-10 minutes before the brain breaks away.

When a child learns to read and write the brain has to learn to work at higher level than ever before. The thought process involved within the imagination is unmatched by anything that a child may see while watching television. When a child is plopped down in front of a television then the next thing that happens is the pleasure centers of the brain are activated, but these pleasure centers learn that it is much easier to get these endorphins without having any mental strain.

The problem is not entirely isolated to children either, this phenomena is very apparent in adults that watch hours of television. When a person sees the easy way out then he/she will almost always take that avenue. For example, would a student rather read the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" in high school or does the student just see the movie and hope it is close enough. Now in the case of smaller children they tend to gravitate to the bright colors and humor presented in shows like Sponge Bob Square Pants instead of reading a book that even with pictures can not compete visually with cartoons. Many kids have the problem of not being able to concentrate in school for more than a few minutes and most of it is mental fatigue. Children do not always have attention deficit disorder when doctors say they do because most time it is just due to having a weak mind, remember that doctors get paid from drug companies for all the pills they prescribe.

Schools nowadays are taken for granted that they will be able to educate the students without the help of the family or community which makes for failure almost every time. Kids need to be outside playing with friends and getting dirty anyways,

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