Channel 13: Watch and Learn

by Tom Kertes

Consider these two facts: 1) the quality of parenting one receives in early childhood has the greatest impact upon a person’s growth and quality of life, and 2) parenting is the only skill that isn’t—and has never been—taught in schools.

Taken together, these facts contradict each other, and obviously, there is a problem. And the absence of sufficient parenting concern and skills is now openly recognized as one of the most prominent problems that educators face.

WNET (Channel 13), a New York public television station profoundly concerned with education, along with the New York City Board of Education decided to stop just “talking the talk.” The two teamed up to do something about the increasingly serious situation, and the result has been WNET’s Ready To Learn (RTL), “a new intergenerational approach to engaging children and their families in using the best television has to offer in an interactive way to prepare children for formal schooling,” explained Macenje Mazoka, WNET’s Director of Youth Outreach.

Led by Mazoka, WNET recently ran a series of workshops called the “Train the Trainer” series to prepare pre-kindergarten family assistants from community school districts around the city to train parents how to be more effectively involved with their children.

Family Assistants, who occupy a relatively novel position in public education, “basically teach new parents parenting skills,” said District 22 representative, Scharlene Yee. “This is an essential and extremely satisfying job. So naturally, we’re vastly underpaid, especially when you consider that, more often than not, we must work with parents from different countries, cultures, customs and languages.”

Sarah Zaken, a mother and grandmother herself, holds literacy workshops in District 22. “I teach parents not just to read, but how to read to their children: how to modulate the voices and how to do it in brief bits to aid the child’s comprehension.”

“Train the Trainer” focussed in on the use of television, specifically WNET’s own programming, to channel preschoolers’ viewing into effective learning experiences. “This workshop was all about how to use Channel 13 as an essential tool in the learning experience,” said District 32’s bubbly Jeannette Sanchez, affectionately known as Mazoka’s ‘teacher’s pet’. “It was four days, and over 40 hours, of our lives. And it was well worth it, every second of it,” she said of the workshops.

“The basic concept we teach is ‘View-Read-Do,’” Mazoka explained. “We direct parents and trainers toward the highest quality programs put together by our prominent group of expert educators. Then we provide pertinent books and other materials parents can read with the children to enhance the viewing experience.”

She added, “We also teach parents and trainers how to improve upon the kids’ television viewing habits.”

As the 31 workshop attendees concurred, RTL works. The respected Institute for Communication Research (ICR) at the University of Alabama found a 35 percent increase (an additional 46 minutes a week) in the number of times parents read to their children among those parents who participated in an RTL workshop. The ICR also found a 40 percent reduction in the amount of television children in the research group watched per day and a 76 percent increase in the amount of time parents spent watching TV with their children. The ICR study concluded, “by becoming critical television gatekeepers and by maximizing educational television viewing, RTL parents are more effectively preparing their children for a lifetime of learning.”

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