Why We Should All Watch with Mother Again ; for Too Long the Tv has Been Derided As the Idiot Box That Turns Our Children Into Square-Eyed Zombies, Says Kate Hadley - but Used Correctly, It Can Be a Vital Educational Tool

Mail on Sunday › November 13, 2006

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Summary

Illustration Andy Ward

This summer my 13-year-old daughter Rosie's school report showed a big improvement: in the contribution-in-class column for most of her subjects she got threes. Although this is rated 'average/poor', it is jolly good progress from the twos she landed last year. At her school in Cambridgeshire, two is appalling; one means you are probably unconscious in class. Last year her teachers said, 'She doesn't put her hand up or join in.'

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Why We Should All Watch with Mother Again ; for Too Long the Tv has Been Derided As the Idiot Box That Turns Our Children Into Square-Eyed Zombies, Says Kate Hadley - but Used Correctly, It Can Be a Vital Educational Tool

Rosie is shy about putting her hand up because she is dyslexic and her memory lets her down; she can't find the words and, afraid of freezing in front of 30 other classmates, she stays silent. But Rosie is conquering this, partly through a determination to put her hand up in class once a day. Her fluency and memory have also been improved by the constant di...

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