Introduction

Abstract

The climate in which I first thought of trying to answer some of my own questions about pre-school children and television was full of talk about education in the impressionable years, what we call, strangely enough, ‘nursery education’. How big a part did television play in the lives of children under five whose parents were demanding such education? What did they remember of what they viewed? Were they confused by the oblong screen that at one moment found room for an aeroplane and the next for a fist holding a revolver? Did violence make them violent? Were they frightened by television? How many hours a day did they spend in front of a set? How many could they spend without damage to their physical and mental development? Did they miss the television when they first came to school? A compelling subject since educated children are the essential ingredient of a continuing civilised society. But how, if necessary, protect children from an established, almost nationwide, part of daily living? Or, if television showed itself to be as valuable a teaching tool as I have found it in a primary school, how discover the best way to use it to supplement the thin provision of education outside their own homes for three- and four-year-olds in this country? In 1971 that provision was for five per cent of three-year-olds and thirty-five per cent of four-year-olds.

Children whose parents haven’t got colour T.V. are educationally deprived. (Dr Radford, West Midlands College of Education)