The students of St. Joseph Schools are going on a diet.
No, they aren't preparing to cut out any extra carbohydrates or sweets. The students on all three campuses are working toward lowering their intake of screen time.
After a presentation by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman in the fall, guidance counselor Teri Breeding said administrators became interested in a program he discussed, entitled Student Media Awareness to Reduce Television.
"He has several books out and has done research on the effects of violence in the media and the negative impact it has on kids," Breeding said Friday. "The kids who are overexposed to violence in the media tend to have more aggressive behaviors, but another part of overexposure to media in general, including computers, video games, television and movies, are that kids spend more time doing that and less time reading and being creative, so it has an impact on academics as well."
Bringing the program to St. Joseph would be an easy way to fix behavior problems and boost test scores, Breeding said. She said to emphasize an improvement in academics, the students will participate in a TV Turn-off Challenge and completely turn off all screens 10 days before any standardized test.
"When we did our training in Escanaba, Mich., we met with people from a high school who had implemented this for a few years and saw their test scores go up," Breeding said. "We're always looking for new ways to raise our test scores and we thought it wouldn't hurt to try it if it's simply turning off the TV and video games."
Aside from curbing aggressive behavior and helping academics, Breeding said implementing this program may also help the students of St. Joseph get a better night's sleep.
"Everyone knows the natural signal of when it's time to go to bed, but it has been taken away from kids because watching TV and playing games stimulates them and the kids just aren't getting the sleep they need," Breeding said.
Though the program is still in its early stages, Breeding said teachers and administrators have been working hard to incorporate it into students' everyday lives.
"We just started last week passing out fliers to share with parents and it's really an awareness thing right now," she said. "But with the high school students, they have several standardized tests coming up, including the ACT, so we'll be presenting this to them soon."
Breeding said she knows she cannot put a permanent ban on all things computerized, so she hopes to encourage students to go on a TV diet throughout the school year.
"We'll present this to the high school kids as an option that could help them get their grades and their test scores up," Breeding said. "Then we'll encourage them to become aware of their habits because some kids don't realize they spend more time on the couch than they do doing other activities."
Ideas for alternate activities throughout the school year include reading, doing homework, playing outdoors, becoming active in the community, volunteering and more.
Breeding said part of the diet also includes different lessons, like keeping a journal to measure TV time and doing research on the effects of violence in media or too much couch time in front of TV so the kids can discover new ideas for themselves.
Because the program is going to start at the high school, Breeding said another lesson will be motivating the older kids to teach the younger ones the benefits of the challenge.
"The English classes are going to do research and put together some kind of visual, either a commercial or a children's book or something like that," Breeding said. "Then when the elementary and primary teachers do the program school-wide next semester, the older ones will go over and teach the younger ones what they've learned."
While Breeding and other school officials were in Michigan over the summer for training, she said teachers who have seen the effects of the problem warned them to be ready for a little resistance.
"With the kids in Escanaba, at first they really resisted it but then they realized there's all this fun stuff to do in your community," Breeding said. "We hope we get a good percentage of kids who really take control of it and from what I've heard at the high school, they don't think they'll have any trouble doing it."
According to Breeding, there were teachers and principals from all areas of the country at the training. She said big schools, small schools, public school and private schools were all represented.
"There are 21 states that are implementing the program this year and we're the only one I know of from Arkansas so I got to know a lot of people from other areas," Breeding said. "And although all schools are different and everyone was there for different reasons, all of it was to do something good for the kids."
(Staff writer Jessica Bauer can be reached by e-mail at jessica.bauer@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1236. To comment on this and other stories in the Log Cabin, log on to www.thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
