 Television
executives are to be urged by schoolteachers to tone down the language
and behaviour shown in programmes because pupils are copying what they
see and hear in the classroom.
A survey of almost 800 teachers found that the rudest behaviour in the
classroom was caused by pupils copying Big Brother and Little
Britain.
Two-thirds of teachers said they believed Big Brother had led to
bad or inappropriate behaviour in their school – while 61% cited
Little Britain.
Other offenders include Waterloo Road – the BBC1 drama about a
comprehensive school – which is said to encourage pupils to wear their
uniforms in a sloppy fashion and The Catherine Tate Show which
has prompted pupils to reply to teachers with the Lauren Cooper
catchphrases Whatev-ah! and Am I Bovvered?
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and
Lecturers, which conducted the survey, said: School staff believe
that television has an even greater influence on the behaviour of young
people than computer and video games. More and more pupils believe the
violence depicted on television and computer games is cool, heroic and
something they want to emulate. It is not just aggressive behaviour –
our members face swearing, inappropriate language and general rudeness
on a daily basis, which is frequently picked up from the TV programmes
pupils are watching.
The survey revealed that 88% of teachers believed the level of general
rudeness in the classroom had increased as a result of the TV programmes
children were watching.
Three out of four believed that TV programmes should be given an age
classification in the same way as films at the cinema.
Comment:
TV is turning our children into little yobs
5th April 2009. See
article
from
dailymail.co.uk
by Anne Diamond
 Anne
Diamond in the Daily Mail is happy to concur and blame pretty much all
of the teachers woes on TV:
Kids soak up television faster than kitchen paper
absorbs household spills. Any parent knows it, and has seen it in
children's behaviour since the days of Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles, which turned my boys into hyperactive aliens until I
carefully limited their TV time and steered them back towards Postman
Pat.
Now, however, the nation's teachers are reporting that too much
television is making life unbearable at school - transforming our little
Siennas, Chloes, Joshuas and Mohammeds into a generation of foul-mouthed
Vicky Pollards and Gordon Ramsays.
I know they're right - because I have heard it, too. Kids do copy
swearing from TV and it's not the same sort of swearing you used to
overhear several years ago from the kids at the corner shop or the bus
stop, who'd let a fourletter word slip out, have a giggle and then
instinctively hush up because adults were within earshot.
Catherine Tate
A bad influence? Lippy schoolgirl Lauren from the Catherine Tate Show
Nowadays, the swearing, aggressive, defiant behaviour is right in your
face. They're proud of it. It defines them. After all, it's on the
telly, isn't it?
...Read full
article
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Children
in reception class, who are aged just four and five, are increasingly
using bad language, talking back to staff and throwing tantrums when
they don't get their own way – re-enacting scenes they have seen on
screen, according to members of the Association of Teachers and
Lecturers.
