TV or Not TV

In today's visually explicit society, busy parents need to give their children every advantage possible to help establish their own creative thinking and grow up healthy and productive in a highly competitive world. Kids watching tv

Hours spent in front of the TV have driven a wedge between many children and their parents and grandparents.Eye in the Ear introduces a step back to the future, with the age-old tradition of fireside storytelling, by presenting exciting, inspirational and educational stories to stir, challenge and strengthen a child's imagination. Enchanting for the whole family, these timeless stories belong in every home, car, school and library where children are present.Eye in the Ear audio books make a wonderful gift for ages 3-99.

Supporting Statements

TIME MAGAZINE:

"Turn off the TV... too many of our kids are growing up brain dead." "Television - the moronic national baby-sitter."

"Watching TV, the child's facial expression is transformed. The jaw drops, the tongue rests on the front teeth, the eyes have a glazed, vacuous look."

From the Author of "The Uses of Enchantment" Bruno Bettleheim:

"My main task is to use fairy tales to restore meaning to the lives of children... by appealing to the Imagination."

Dr. Joyce Brothers:

"Americans spend 85% of their free time watching television, making us the world's biggest TV watchers. Children watch between 25 and 30 hours a week, which causes them to be passive and self-centered."

National Educational Testing Service:

"Students in at least a dozen countries outperform American youngsters in scholastic aptitude tests. The only place where we ranked first was in TV watching. American parents must turn off the TV if we want our students to improve."

From the book "The Overworked American" (The Decline of Leisure):

"Americans, young and old, have forgotten how to use their leisure time constructively. Instead of participating in away-from-home activities as travel, sports, exercise and gardening - and such at-home pursuits as reading, game-playing, good talk and storytelling - the vast majority of Americans turn on the TV set and sit back passively. Behold, the Couch Potato!"

Andy Rooney on "60 Minutes":

"Let's stop blaming our schools for our children's poor performance. Let's blame our dumb kids, who weren't born dumb, but have been made dumb, mainly by their parents who have allowed their children to watch too much television, thus numbing their minds. TV isn't called the plug-in drug for nothing."

American Psychology Association:

"Too much TV leads to antisocial values and self-centered behavior problems in children... and does little to foster positive values. The average child watches 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence by seventh grade."

From Frances Kelley

The voice behind
Eye in the Ear’s
audio books

Over the years, I have read countless stories to blind children, both in recordings and in person. Since so much of their communication from the "outside world" reaches them via the ear, their imagination is ever at work, converting words and sounds into mental images. Their mind's eye is never closed; blind children literally live in their imagination.

Sighted children, in contrast, spend far less time in their imagination. Instead they devote an average of 25 hours a week to watching television... where the same picture is served to every child, leaving the imagination with little to do. When reading to groups of children in schools through out New England I try to paint the story in a child's mind. My goal is to open the mind's eye of children by inspiring them to create their own mental images by using what we call "Picture Words," to stimulate the imagination. The fun starts afterward when the children are instructed to draw what they "saw" in their minds.

This is a very powerful tool in a child's development.