Noggin: A Use for Cable
I’ve never been a big TV watcher, and hoped I would pass that on to my children. I’ve always operated on the assumption that despite the smattering of educationally oriented television, TV is, for the most part a brain-sucking endeavor. I’ve seen a whole generation of kids lose their attention spans to television.
All that changed recently with a verbal exchange between my five year old and my nine year old.
9 Year Old: Dad, will cigarettes make people extinct?
5 Year Old: What does extinct mean?
My nine year old then proceeded to give a great explanation of extinction, which my 5 year old grasped immediately. After that, she then described to her sister the incredible world of vocabulary that lay before her beyond kindergarten.
9 Year Old: Like today we learned what horizontal means
5 Year Old: (excited) I know what that means!
9 Year Old: Do you know what vertical means?
5 Year Old: (holding her spoon straight up) This is horizontal. (then holding her spoon straight) This is vertical, and (holding her spoon at an angle) this is diagonal.
Rest of Family: Wow!
5 Year Old: Yeah, I know what flabbergasted means too!
9 Year Old: What does that mean?
My 5 year old then proceeded to give an explanation to my 9 year old complete with examples.
5 Year Old: I learn all kinds of words on Noggin.
She then proceeded to launch into a long string of new multi-syllabic salvos that she’d recently learned.
I haven’t been able to afford cable for the past few years. (My daughter watches Noggin at her mother’s house. ) I’ve further condemned cable television as a right wing conspiracy to ruther dull the brains of the masses, perhaps solely out of sour-grapes rationalization.
Hearing my daughter’s new barrage of vocabulary gave me a new appreciation for cable and television as a whole. I still think television is evil if left unchecked, but if all of television could make as big a dent in children’s vocabulary as Noggin, it wouldn’t be all bad.
Technorati Tags: Noggin, cable television
Filed under: General Observations on November 29th, 2006
You know, you better get on board with cable soon. By the year 2008, people won’t be able to get ANY television without a box. Not even the old fashion “bunny ears” will work anymore! You can just get basic cable, channels 1-18 if you want, but you will have to get a box. Better do it soon before the mad rush!