Television

The most important thing we have learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, never,NEVER let-
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every blessed house we 've been,
We 've watched them gaping at the screen,
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they are hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out Window still,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you to the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink-
But did you ever think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your tot?

IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY: A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK- HE ONLY SEES!

"All right! " you will cry, " All right! " you will say.
"But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children! Please explain!
We will answer this by asking,
"What used the darling ones to do?
How used they keep themselves contendted
Before this monster was invented?
Have you forgotten?
Don't you know?
We will say it very loud and slow:

THEY....USED...TO...READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ AND READ, and proceed
To READ some more.
Great Anase and the fishing hook!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, lions, spiders, monsters, kings,queens and whales
Treasure isles and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffed oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot,
The younger ones sit circles for story time,
Sometimes by the fireside
The stories flows as these
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How The Monkey Lost His Rump,
Mr Toad And His Gold
There's Mr Rat and Mr Mole
The Goat Along The Coast
Mr Toad Bless My Soul
Oh,books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away.

And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because I promise you
That,in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need,
And once they start- oh boy, oh boy! You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills thir heart.
They will grow so keen
They will wonder what they did ever seen
In that ridiculous, foul unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

Follow me on @salajacklyn from @steemitghana
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