How to Manage Withdrawal from Excessive Media Exposure

Posted on May 13, 2008 
Filed Under Homeschool, Learning Lifestyle

Changing a bad habit isn’t the easiest thing you’ll ever do, but it can be done. If you’d like to help your family withdraw from the daily media barrage, it will help if you have a specific plan for how to do it.

One of the easiest ways to begin is to wait for a natural transition time– the end of the school year, a family wedding or house move, a vacation, or anything that breaks into the normal routine. Have a family meeting and let everyone know that a change is coming, when it will arrive, and what you expect life to look like once the change occurs.

In A Thomas Jefferson Education, Oliver DeMille suggests a useful method for “detoxing” the family when switching from institutional education to something more nurturing. It seems equally applicable to the process of withdrawing from excessive media exposure as well. He suggests instituting “a careful program of family activity… which emphasizes wholesome activity that does not reward conformity but the attention of the individuals. Some examples include hiking, hands-on art creation, service projects, travel, etc.” (94)

He cautions that change can be stressful, but by “over-programming family time with wholesome and constructive projects, the family can ease off” gently and move into a lifestyle more conducive to learning. This aligns nicely with my favorite admonishment to “do and be; don’t sit and stare!”

It’s rewarding to see each family member gradually develop genuine interests in constructive activities and the reading of good books. Some will take longer than others, but no matter what anyone says, the effort is truly worth it.

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If you’re not familiar with A Thomas Jefferson Education, by Oliver Van DeMille, it’s one of the books I recommend most highly, along with its companion, A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion. My copies flutter with sticky tags and the text is underlined and annotated all the way through.

TJ Education tidily encapsulates the type of learning I’ve shared with my children and with those of you who have heard me speak (and it’s compatible with much of what Charlotte Mason teaches). I wish I’d had these books in the beginning– they would have made my path much clearer. They are worth having at any point, though, because the knowledge they provide will help you step away from the “conveyor belt” style of education and create a lifestyle of learning that can bless and enrich your family for generations.

Comments

One Response to “How to Manage Withdrawal from Excessive Media Exposure”

  1. Diane on May 15th, 2008 1:16 pm

    We sat down just after Christmas and had a family discussion about our t.v. We all decided that we didn’t need and couldn’t stand the television anymore and worked out alternate ways of dealing with it. One of the ways for my husband to deal with it was to take the monthly Blockbuster movies by mail route and to catch up on all the reading he had meant to do for a long time but never had seemed to get around to. One daughter still watches a favorite show by downloading it to her IPod and I increased her allowance to compensate. Other shows come out on the internet for viewing within a few days of the original and Blockbuster has seasons for rent at the end of the season if we want. We use the newspaper, radio, and the internet for news updates and for the first time ever, I have been able to get the kids to finish all their reading assignments in a timely manner with no excuses. Add to this that I still save $20 per month even paying for the IPod downloads, newspaper, and Blockbuster and that all the yardwork and household needs are being taken care of with everyone working together and family reading and activities have increased. We do not miss the television!

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