Argumentative Essay : Television Viewing #2

Television has mesmerized people of all ages since the time it was created (Leigh 2001). Currently, in developed countries, more than ninety percents of families are evaluated to have at least one television set (Sharif 1999). In American Time Use Survey (2003), it is calculated that most of women and men spent their leisure time watching television. The result clearly shows that people have been watching television extensively. This is further affirmed by the UK Time Use Survey (2004) that approximated about one and a half hour to three hours per day had been spent by people on television, video and radio. Lots of people have evinced their concern about this issue as it affects the development of children. Some people said that television brings tonnes of benefit to humankind; however, I strongly believed that television brings more negative effects as it disrupts the development of the thinking process of children, creates health problem and triggers behavioural problems.

First and foremost, television influences the development of the thinking process of children. Nowadays, there a lot of unsuitable children programs aired by the television. These programs stimulate the development of short attention spans in children through their brief segments and flashy appearance. Children are prone to believe what they saw on television as they are at a stage on developing their mind. Thus, programs that always show problems are solved within thirty minutes embolden children to think that all problems are easily solved. Later, they will be easily disappointed and give up when they faced a difficult situation in their real life (Sharif 1999). According to Dr. Jones, television viewing is a passive activity. By watching television, children do not acquire imaginative skills which are essential in enhancing problem-solving and organizational ability (Leigh 2001). Thus, all of these effects lead to disruption in the development of the thinking process of children.

Beside this, viewing of television for a long period leads to health problems. People need to stay in front of television in order to watch it. As a result, people are not being physically active through this kind of indoor activity (Sharif 1999). People rather flick between channels to find interesting programs rather than switch it off. It then limits the time for sports and exercise (Rutherford 2002). According to the UK Time Use Survey (2004), people spent roughly less than twelve minutes for their sports and exercise for the weekdays and less than thirty minutes during the weekend. Television viewing is a sedentary activity and people tend to grab snacks or eat their meals during this period. This results in obesity and some related diseases (Rutherford 2002). Hence, extensive television viewing causes health problems such as obesity due to lack of exercise.

Other than this, television viewing triggers behavioural problems. There is a lot of violence scenes showed in television even in the news .Research has shown that seeing too much violence on television desensitize children to it. As children believed what they saw on television, they are easily tried to be like them. Evidence proves that there has been an incident where children imitate their favourite superhero or characters in shows, and injured themselves as they thought that they have the same abilities of the superhero. In the movies also, people are classified as either good or bad while men and women played a specific role in life. Later, children’s behaviour towards themselves and other people are affected by these stereotypes (Sharif 1999). According Dr. Jones, children who watch television extensively are among the bottom rank students at school. Besides, television programs need undivided attention from the viewers. Thus, it is hard to focus on other activity such as homework when the television is on (Leigh 2001). So, it is proven that television viewing creates behavioural problems.

As a conclusion, extensive television viewing is indeed brings lots of adverse effect on people generally and children especially. In American Time Use Survey (2003), watching television have the highest average hours spent per day compared to the others proved that television is being watched protractedly. The smooth development of children’s thinking process is disrupted by the extensive television viewing. Therefore, I strongly agree that television brings more negative effect as it disrupts the development of the thinking process of children, creates health problem and triggers behavioural problems.

Argumentative Essay: Television Viewing #1

Television has mesmerized people of all ages since the time it was created (Leigh 2001). Currently, in developed countries, more than ninety percents of families are evaluated to have at least one television set (Sharif 1999). In American Time Survey (2003), it is calculated that most of women and men spent their leisure time watching television. The result clearly shows that people have been watching television extensively. This is further affirmed by the UK Time Use Survey (2004) that approximated about one and a half hour to three hours per day had been spent by people on television, video and radio. Lots of people have evinced their concern about this issue as it may affect development of children. Some people said that television brings tonnes of benefit to humankind; however, I strongly believed that television brings more negative effects as it disrupt the development of the thinking process of children, create health problem and triggers behavioral problems.

First and foremost, television may influence the development of the thinking process of children. Nowadays, there a lot of unsuitable children programs aired by the television. These programs stimulate the development of short attention spans in children through their brief segments and flashy appearance. Children are prone to believe what they saw on television as they are at a stage on developing their mind. Thus, programs that show problems can always be solved within thirty minutes embolden children to think that all problems are easily solved. Later, they will be easily disappointed and give up when they faced a difficult situation in their real life (Sharif 1999). According to Dr. Jones, children do not acquire imaginative skills which are essential in enhancing problem-solving and organizational ability because television viewing is a passive activity (Leigh 2001). Thus, all of these effects lead to disruption in the development of the thinking process of children.

Beside this, viewing of television for a long period may lead to health problems. People need to stay in front of television in order to watch it. As a result, people are not being physically active through this kind of indoor activity (Sharif 1999). People rather flick between channels to find interesting programs rather than switch it off. It then limits the time for sports and exercise (Rutherford 2002). According to the UK Time Use Survey (2004), people spent roughly less than twelve minutes for their sports and exercise for the weekdays and less than thirty minutes during the weekend. Television viewing is a sedentary activity and people tend to grab snacks or eat their meals during this period. This may cause obesity and some related diseases (Rutherford 2002). Hence, extensive television viewing may cause health problems such as obesity due to lack of exercise.

Other than this, television can trigger behavioural problems. There is a lot of violence scenes showed in television even in the news .Research has shown that seeing too much violence on television can desensitize children to it. As children believed what they saw on television, there has been an incident where children imitate their favourite superhero or characters in shows, and injured themselves as they thought that they have the same abilities of the superhero. In the movies also, people are classified as either good or bad while men and women played a specific role in life. Their behaviour towards themselves and other people can be affected by these stereotypes (Sharif 1999). According Dr. Jones, children who watch television extensively are among the bottom rank students at school. Besides, television programs need undivided attention from the viewers. Thus, it is hard to focus on other activity such as homework when the television is on (Leigh 2001). So, it can be said that television may create behavioural problems.

As a conclusion, extensive television viewing is indeed brings lots of adverse effect on people generally and children especially. It is important for the children to have a smooth development of their thinking process but it will be disrupt by the extensive television viewing. It is important to prevent children from too much exposed to the television. Parents must play their role to ensure that unsuitable programs that aired on television are not watch by their children. Parents also must give a good example to the children. Remember that television is a bad master but it can become a good servant. Therefore, I strongly believed that television brings more negative effect.

Aus News: Fears schools may cheat to improve test performance

NSW high school principals are expecting the teacher ban on NAPLAN tests to affect the ''vast majority'' of secondary schools next week.

The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim Mc Alpine, said Australia was in danger of becoming a ''nation of cheats'' unless the national literacy and numeracy tests were monitored by external supervisors.

Mr. Mc Alpine said the federal government's reward payments for improved NAPLAN results would tempt schools, which administer the tests, to alter results to improve performance. He said the federal government should pay for external supervisors for the high-stakes NAPLAN tests given to students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

''Julia Gillard should pay for external exam supervision in every school to ensure the results are fair and genuine, in the same way we do the HSC. It is ludicrous these tests are done in a classroom with a teacher,'' he said. ''There is no way to control the alteration to answers and yet these results are being used to make judgments on school performance.

''We don't want Australia to become a nation of cheats.''

Mr. Mc Alpine said the vast majority of his members had indicated that they will be supporting the Australian Education Union's moratorium on the NAPLAN test.

The Department of Education has said that its feedback suggested NAPLAN tests would be delivered at 85 per cent of primary and high schools on May 11, 12 and 13.

The NSW Primary Principals Association said it was unsure what proportion of schools would be affected by the teacher ban next week.

The president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Bob Lipscombe, said the union was considering its advice to schools that attempted to use untrained people to supervise the tests. He ruled out any violence but would not say whether the union would consider setting up picket lines outside schools.

Mr. Lipscombe refuted Department of Education advice that NAPLAN tests would be delivered to the majority of students. ''We remain unconvinced that they can deliver the tests in all schools,'' he said.

The NSW opposition spokesman on education, Adrian Piccoli, said the federal government was looking for a fight with the national teacher union.

''Julia Gillard wants to fight to prove to big business that she is not beholden to unions. That is what this dispute is about. She could resolve this dispute and students could do the NAPLAN tests.

''The NSW government is doing all the head kicking on her behalf and ultimately it is the kids who miss out on the tests.''

A spokesperson for Ms Gillard said the government was committed to providing information on core skills and that the test results guided decisions on financial assistance for schools.
Yesterday the state government established a hotline for parents with concerns about the NAPLAN tests.

The line will be open from 8am to 7pm on weekdays and 9am to 6pm at the weekend. The number is 1300388246.

My comments:

For your information, NAPLAN stands for National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy commenced in Australia. Every year, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on the same days using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. However, recently, the teachers association in Australia have banned the NAPLAN tests. This is because the schools may cheat to improve their results to get financial aid from the government. They suggested that the NAPLAN tests should be monitored by external supervisors instead of the teachers of the schools themselves. In my opinion, there are so many irresponsible person cheat for their own benefit. There is even a country that cheated on their financial status just to attract more investors. However, this kind of act cannot be kept secret for a long time as there must be one time where people will know about it and things may get worse than what they can imagine. So, do not cheat to anybody as it is not a good act and it can bring harm to other people and yourself.

Argumentative Essay #3

Junk food can be defined as any food that have low nutritional value and considered to be unhealthy (Smith 2005). According to the research by Health Foundation (2005), six out of thirteen most popular snack foods among the students contain low nutritional value. In Weekend News (2005), it is stated that over the past 30 years, the nutritional value of food eaten by Australian children has been falling progressively. As a result, childhood obesity is likely to happen and junk food is the one to be blamed for this. Thus, I strongly believed that sales of junk food should be banned in school canteen as it leads to health problem, environmental problem and initiate behavioural problem of students.

First and foremost, junk food should be banned in school canteen is simply because it can give an adverse effect on health of the students (Weekend News 2005). As students usually consume what is sold by the canteen, mainly junk food, it can contribute to weight gain of the students. Then, the problem worsens as students did not get enough physical activity. This may lead to childhood obesity which can cause students to suffer chronic disease in the future. Besides that, dental health of students may also deteriorate as a result of intake of soft drinks which is also a junk food. Thus, junk food cannot be sold in the school canteen as it may cause childhood obesity and dental problem.

In addition, the ban on junk food in school canteen should be enforced because consumption on junk food can lead to environmental problems. Junk food packaging contributes to litter problem in most of the schools. Cans, crisp packets, cartons and plastic containers are usually being dumped everywhere by the students as it is convenient for them (Green 2005). This litter problem increases cleaning costs and time besides create a bad image of the communities (Smith 2005). It is clear that junk food give a detrimental effect on the environment of where education takes place.

Furthermore, junk food can cause behavioural problems of the students. According to Caputo (2005), a child psychologist, junk food can trigger behavioural problems as there are a lot of chemical addictives in the junk food. The examples of behavioural problem that can emerge as a result of junk food intake are hyperactivity and poor concentration (Smith 2005). Green (2005), a primary school teacher said that student’s behaviour improves when junk food and soft drinks are removed from the canteen. This shows that junk food severely affect the behavior of the students.

In a nutshell, junk food indeed brings negative effect on students, the environment they live in and their lifestyle. It is a must to prevent students from continuing harm themselves and the environment although it may scarifies more profits to the school from the sales of the canteen (Weekend News 2005). Thus, I strongly believe that the sale of junk food in school canteens should be banned for the sake of future health of our nation.