One reason for this is that some children’s programs are designed to be educational. For example, Sesame Street, which is aimed at children aged 2 to 5 years old, teaches the children about letters, numbers, and shapes. The lessons are presented using methods and materials which will appeal to the children, such as funny puppets, cartoon clips, and songs. For young children, exposure to programs like this will be a good preparation for preschool.
Older, school going children may also benefit from certain television programs. Many countries have education television programs, specially designed to reinforce the lessons taught in school at both primary and secondary levels. This can cover a wide range of subjects, such as Mathematics, Science, Geography and History.
Educational television uses multimedia to make lessons more interesting. A history lesson could include movies based on the incidences being studies, dramatizations of certain scenes, and photographs of the locations of these incidents. Geography lessons would include videos of the places being studied, interview with the people of these lands, and songs and dances of the lands; biology lessons could include videos of animals in motion, or cadavers being dissected. The television screen can bring the scenes and experiences rights to the classroom. The potential is only limited by the imagination of the producers.
Furthermore, consider the fact that each television lesson is put together by a whole team of experts from the different fields: teachers, scientists, zoo keepers, musicians, script writers, animators, and actors, to name a few. The end product should surely be more interesting and effective than a lesson prepared by the average classroom teacher who has to think up the lesson plans, day after day, on top of her burden of paperwork.
Besides, government sponsored educational television, other commercial television programs may also help students in their studies. Documentaries concerning geographical, historical or scientific facts, for example, may inspire students or create an interest in the school subjects. Furthermore, language skills can be improved through watching many programs, such as movies in target language.
In conclusion, it must be acknowledged that too much television viewing will probably be detrimental to any student’s examination results, as it would be time taken away from personal revision. However, watching selected television programs in a controlled way could be beneficial to a good students studies.