I?m not usually in the habit of sharing the latest journal articles with my sons, the Little Conqueror and the Little General, but in this case the findings have a clear relevance to an issue of some controversy in my household: whether a TV will ever park itself in their bedrooms.
Televisions, computers, video games – the education and entertainment of today?s children has become an electronic blitz.
But is that a good thing or a bad thing? According to a study published this month in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, it can be both.
The study found that third-graders with a television in their bedrooms scored significantly lower on the Stanford Achievement Test, but those with a computer in the home scored higher.
Of course, Alex and Andrew would simply counterpropose that I put computers in each room, computers that would immediately be used in the highly academic pursuit of blowing up Klingon battlecruisers, throwing Dr. Doom off buildings, and conquering neighboring Civilizations.
