Television , “ the idiotic thing” is claimed as a dangerous threat to childhood. During childhood, the imagination of human beings works in magical ways which require nourishment. At this tender stage, the imaginative factors require nurture and nutriment. Television kills the abilities of a child when it consumes its contents. Therefore, the poet is instructing the parents to throw away their television set and to install a “lovely bookshelf ” in its place.
TEXT
The most important thing we’ve learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set —
Or better still, just don’t install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we’ve been,
We’ve watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone’s place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they’re hypnotised by it,
Until they’re absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don’t climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink —
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK — HE ONLY SEES!
‘All right!’ you’ll cry. ‘All right!’ you’ll say,
‘But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!’
We’ll answer this by asking you,
‘What used the darling ones to do?
‘How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?’
Have you forgotten? Don’t you know?
We’ll say it very loud and slow:
THEY … USED … TO … READ! They’d READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching ’round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it’s Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There’s Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They’ll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start — oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They’ll grow so keen
They’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
The most important thing we’ve learned,… Before this monster was invented.
The poet is providing an important lesson on parenting. A new machine of entertainment in the 1960s , television, which the poet calls “idiot thing” and “monster” captured the human race’s attention. Cartoons, a specific children’s content , commenced to consume their attention. Parents, in order to get rid of their little truant tantrums, figured out their solution in this entertainment box.
The poet emphasises not to install a TV set in your room. To make his assertion weighty, he incorporates ‘Never’ twice in bold letters. He is considerate about the effect of the new invention on the little minds. Their observation is both scary and a signal for children’s mental health damage. The children have become accustomed to staring at the screen while looking, sloping and lounging till their eyes pop out. The television is casting a hypnotic effect on them for which their parents are real culprits.
The poet mentions the advantage and benefits enjoyed by the guardians while the television is keeping their offsprings busy. But they are interrogated regarding the dreadful psychological impact.
Sense gets rotten up, imagination is killed, mind is clogged with nonsense and the outcome is a dull and blind child. Blind in the sense that it can no longer understand anything pertinent to fairy tales and fantastic tales. The brain becomes ‘sort and the power of thinking is ‘lost’.
So, the prescription for this psychological illness lies in the abandoning of the television fondness. But the questions which hits us is how to entertain and procure contentment. The poet instead of providing the answer straightforwardly cones Uk with another question. The question makes the parents and readers think.
Have you forgotten? Don’t you know?
We’ll say it very loud and slow…
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
The manner of squeezing out an answer from the readers is both amusing and a critical one. The poet is critiquing the elders for their irresponsible actions implicitly. The elders are responsible for the youth’s degeneration. In order to accentuate the claim, he asks us to read the solution loud and slow. The solution which lies in reading books is again highlighted by repeating the word ‘READ’ in uppercase.
Previously, the children’s lives were mainly shaped by the tender and nourishing hands of books. These books were available in their lives extensively as it covered their shelves, floors and bed. Books made them believe in fantastical and allegorical tales. Therefore, their epistemological factors regarding books were also substantial.
The poet renders confidence to the Guardian and elders that children will display tantrums and antics on getting deprived of television. But slowly they will grow accustomed to the change .Having nothing to do , they will start to binge on the books. The parents will be the witness to their children healthy development and growth.