doglover, I have no criticism of teachers, especially considering the problems they have to deal with. It's not your fault that the brain circuitry of your students developed from chronic TV-watching interferes with your teaching skills.

The problem with my TV explanation is that everyone loves and is addicted to TV so much so that TV is immune from being recognized as the cause of ADHD. The psych and drug-industries would have no profit and status if those two abominations would attribute ADHD to parents using TV for a babysitter. I'm sure you can imagine the response you'd get if you made that suggestion to the parents of your students.

And if you don't think the psych and drug-industries exist only for profit and status, consider one of their newest "disorders": Body Dismorphic Disorder. First: why doesn't Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder encompass the heartbreak of BDD? Second: Very clever of the psych and drug-industries to concoct a "disorder" that would attract thousands, if not millions, of people in a society such as ours. Our old friend TV contributes much to that very problem: Superficiality and shallowness: More distractions from reading the Great Books.

WOW gazettefan! If I were in the medical field, I might actually take offense to your banter. As it is, my professional opinion stems from BEING one of those teachers for 12 years who has had the challenge to be more entertaining than a television program. If you have ever had the opportunity to work with families and their children who have attention issues, perhaps your "common sense" approach might have more credibility with me.

doglover, my conclusion about "ADHD" is based on looking at the problem with common sense and intelligence.

And if your "professional" opinion comes from the fact that your profession is as a therapist, it is my opinion that you and your ilk and your psych-industry (including the drug industry) attain profit and status from the creation of false mental disorders and disorders that you and your ilk fail to understand while your true motives are based in the aforementioned profit and status.

Yup, no TV here either.

"Finally, there is some evidence that viewing cartoons has a negative effect on children's attentional abilities."

Thakkar, Garrison, & Christakis. "A Systematic Review for the Effects of Television Viewing by Infants and Preschoolers," Pediatrics, 118, 5, November 2006, pp. 2025-2031.

No TV. No TV problems.

I refuse to let my children sit inside and watch the same episode of iCarly or Spongebob unless it's for a few minutes before bed or right away in the morning on a WEEKEND only while they are trying to wake up. In the evenings, the only things we watch are the news or Brewers baseball or Packers football... They are NOT allowed tv on when they go to sleep and in the summer their butts are outside being a kid. I feel bad for kids that don't know how to be outside and how to play, without the video games, tvs, or newest electronic media. Go climb a tree or build a fort or ride a bike. Go get dirty or sweaty and get some fresh air. We wonder why our child obesity level is higher than ever. It's a really sad world to find out your child doesn't know how to play "ghosts in the graveyard" or hopscotch... Or doesn't even know how to play "school" or "house" or "pirates". I remember as a child having a make believe city in my backyard, where we'd pretend to fill our cars(bikes) up with gas, go to a bank(picnic table) to get money(monopoly money) to by stuff for our house(fort behind the garage). It was some of the best memories I have of being a child. And had my mother not kicked us out of the house, off of the tv and told us to go play, we never would've figured out how to be creative and social as a child. I can thank HER for my special childhood experiences.

After my step-kids moved in with us we noticed that sitting and watching TV was keeping them from engaging in their new community and perhaps from making friends. Along with a few other ideas to help them acclimate, we decided to cancel the cable TV. My husband and I rarely had time to watch it anyway. That was in 1998. To this day we still don't have cable or a working antenna. We watch DVDs we check out from the library on our TV. The kids (now adults) are now following in our footsteps. They tend to see TV as a waste of time. I couldn't agree more.

gazettefan: I would be the first one to admit that children watch too much television. I would like to know where you get your "research" from that claims that: "Kids show up at school with "ADHD" as a result of the sad combination of kinetic passivity that comprises TV-watching." That is a very inaccurate statement in my personal and professional opinion. Please, cite for me your source so that I can read more about your claim.

TV has done more to harm to the American mentality than anything else. You can judge what TV does to people by considering the content of more than 90 percent of what's on it.

Kids show up at school with "ADHD" as a result of the sad combination of kinetic passivity that comprises TV-watching. What the teacher does just doesn't measure up to the brain circuitry produced by the first four or five years of TV-watching.

We LOVE TV. Too much I would say. But, thanks to the upcoming cost savings cuts by Gov. Walker it was one of the things we chose to cut in preparation for the income loss, among many others. Up went the antenna and out went the cable bill. I have to say its not that bad. In fact we should of done it years ago. TV is great but, it is a complete waste of time. Being the parents of a new born we can't wait to do some of the same activities that get the body and mind moving that you enjoy with your family.