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Published on 05/04/1998 All articles from this issue

Oak students free themselves from the lure of the TV

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By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

Like most fifth graders, turning on the television is part of Brent Doiguchi's daily routine. The Oak School student said he usually watches about two hours of television each day. So when his teacher suggested that he and his classmates pull the plug on their televisions for one week as part of the fourth annual National TV-Turnoff Week April 22-28, he said he was "shocked" and unsure if he could do it.

"It was really hard for the first few days, but than I got over it," Brent said. Instead of TV, Brent said he practiced his basketball shots, walked his dog and played with his next door neighbor. During the times that his parents and brother watched TV, Brent said he would sit in the other room and play his trumpet.

Brent was among the approximately 60 fifth graders from Oak School in Los Altos, grades kindergarten through grade six, who volunteered not to watch any TV as part of the national campaign to highlight the effects of TV, particularly media violence, on children.

Candy Wilke, fifth grade teacher at Oak, said the students brainstormed until they came up with a list of alternative activities.

She said about 90 percent of those who participated successfully avoided turning on the TV for the entire week. She said 27 out of 29 of the students in her class were successful. Wilke said about half of the students' families also joined in the campaign.

"Those who made it work spent a lot more time outside," Wilke said. "I think they really got the message that doing things with their families are far better than watching TV alone."

Brent said he won't give up TV totally, but he will probably watch less of it. "Today we were allowed to turn it on, but I didn't watch it," he said at the end of the week.

His classmate Jordi Anderson said she filled the days doing things she normally doesn't do, such as going to a play and having a picnic with her dad.

"It was easier than I thought," she said.

The Junior League of Palo Alto-Mid Peninsula and Score have sponsored the event for the past four years to help the community understand television's far-reaching effects and to show support for alternatives to television.

TV Turnoff Week was part of Change the Channel on Violence, a community project sponsored by the Junior League of Palo Alto-Mid Peninsula, which focuses on the effects of TV violence on children.

Students who successfully completed the week will receive a coupon for educational services from Score Kapalan and a certificate of achievement for TV-free America.