The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never,
ER,
ER
Them near your television set --Or better still, just don't
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.(Last week in someone's place we sawA dozen eyeballs on the floor.)They sit and stare and stare and
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the
And wash the dishes in the sink --But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly
This does to your beloved tot?
IT
TS
HE
SE IN
HE
AD!
IT
LS
ON
AD!
IT
GS
ND
RS UP
HE
ND!
IT
ES A
LD SO
LL
ND
HE
AN NO
ER
DA
SY,
A
ND!
IS
IN
ES AS
FT AS
SE!
IS
RS OF
NG
ST
ND
ZE!
HE
OT
NK -- HE
LY
ES!'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to
Our darling children?
Please explain!'We'll answer this by asking you,'What used the darling ones to do?'How used they keep themselves
Before this monster was invented?'Have you forgotten?
Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
EY ...
ED ...
TO ...
AD!
They'd
AD and
AD,
ND
AD and
AD, and then
To
AD some more.
Great Scott!
Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and
And treasure isles, and distant
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)The younger ones had Beatrix
With Mr.
Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin,
Pigling Bland,
And Mrs.
Tiggy-Winkle and-Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr.
Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr.
Rate and Mr.
Mole-Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can installA lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-Fear not, because we promise
That, in about a week or
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing
That fills their hearts.
They'll grow so
They'll wonder what they'd ever
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every
Will love you more for what you did.
