Was There Any Doubt?
Students from ages 9 to 15 who watch TV during the school week perform worse in school than students who only watch on the weekend and not during the week. There is also data in this study suggesting that video games and R-rated movies also degrade school performance. The recommendation from the researchers is all entertainment activities need to be monitored and restricted to less than 1 hour per day during school weeks. Eliminating TV from weekday distractions created excellent work at school in over 50 percent of students in the study (study reported in the medical journal Pediatrics).
What seems to be lost on many parents is that young people under the age of 21 are not ready to decide what is best for them. Neuroscience has documented that the parts of the brain that creates balanced thinking (the balance between recklessness versus productive behaviors) is under-developed prior to age 21. For example, young people exhibit fearless behaviors such as skateboarding down steps or racing cars through city streets, behaviors not likely past 21. Yet productive behaviors such as reading or doing homework are seen as “punishment” or in the way of doing something fun.
This is where adults exhibiting mature behaviors and thinking become a valuable resource for young people. While many of kid’s actions are self-centered and hedonistic, they still desire adult respect, especially from parents. If adults set “gold” standards for their children, the results can be significant. However, if parents believe that their children will “magically” make the right choices, they will be disappointed.
Finally, don’t assume that children under 16 are ready for R-rated movies, video games or that they can handle the new genre of gore horror movies. Visuals are a powerful medium and may create long-lasting mental imprints that are hard to suppress. Take the advice of researchers and monitor children’s entertainment activities.
Small Business Resources
Here is a short list of online resources for those of you planning (or already into) owning a small business:
Federal Trade Commission (if you are thinking of buying a franchise): www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/invest/buyfran.htm
Small Business Administration: www.sba.gov
Service Corps of Retired Executives: www.score.org
National Association for the Self-Employed: www.nase.org
INC magazine: www.inc.com
Entrepreneur magazine: www.entrepreneur.com
Finally, here is one of the most popular publications offered by the
Homework Debate
The debate over homework – is it necessary, is there too much or too little and so on – continues with the two sides seemingly unwilling to agree. There’s one group that says homework is just too much busy work with no apparent relevance to school activities. There’s the other group that suggests that homework is meaningful and complements daily activities.
The real focus on this debate should be about creating learning discipline. Financial success in life is the ability to set aside social activities and other distractions for those activities that build self-discipline. It’s not about reading chapters in a book but making time to reading chapters in a book. Success is about time management, goal-setting and the ability to stay focused while challenged by countless other options. Learning is a lifetime commitment.
These choice driven self-discipline activities set the stage for future growth and success. Once students get to college, the temptations of college life are too much for most kids to handle leading to failure. Instead of reading (not just chapters but complete books) students head off to a sporting event or the local pub. Too many students never understand that fun is the reward of applying discipline to create success. Instead, applying a good work ethic comes second or third.
Homework should not only reflect building on classroom activities but should also represent a commitment of time necessary to create some expertise in the subject. It is almost impossible in today’s classroom to fully explore a topic within the time frame of the class period. Homework fills this gap.
Today, too many students fill their lives with entertainment, including TV, Internet and text messaging. Those activities will not create success in the workplace or build a résumé that lands a high paying job. In fact, economic studies have shown a direct inverse relationship with TV viewing habits. The more hours of TV viewing, the less the annual wage; less TV, more money. In the near future, other entertainment activities will be studied and the guess here is that the inverse relationship will remain.
GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE
© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC
