By David Heiller
Iím going to devote my column this week to some special kids and what they did last week.

They were some of the 98 students at Caledonia Elementary School who went without watching TV or playing computer games for a week.

It was part of a nation-wide program called ìTurn Off the TV Week.î Locally, the schoolís Parents As Allies in their Child Education (PACE) organization sponsored it.

I asked these kids about it on Friday in school family support worker Julie OíMara-Meyerís office. They had finished four TV-less days, with the biggest challenge ahead of them: the weekend.

Their responses were quite interesting, and sometimes brutally honest. For example, Jessica Olson told me that she had signed up for it because she could get prizes. Hey, nothing wrong with the old carrot on a stick, if itís for a good cause.

Megan Sheehan noticed that she gets lazy when she watches TV.

Cole Konkel said he had learned new things from his sister and mother. TV numbs a personís brain and gives headaches, he added.

Austin Goergen said he was getting better grades in class, and doing his homework better. Laura Peter had been going outside and playing with her friends more. Kyle Gran was playing more sports, and working with his pigeons.

Lewis Miller admitted he almost turned on the TV.

ìGot to be a habit, huh?î OíMara-Meyer said.

ìYeah,î Lewis admitted.

Luke Werner said he used to get up in the morning and watch TV. Now he was getting up and grabbing a book.

ìYou started to read?î OíMara-Meyer asked.

ìYeah,î Luke answered.

Aaron Barchel said it was tough to miss The Amazing Race. His parents taped it for him, so he could watch it when the week was up. Other kids talked about missing their favorite shows, like Full house, Fear Factor, and Lost.

Selena Privet said her family gave up watching movies at night for lent, so the TV-less week wasnít too hard. ìBecause some of the shows I watch I didnít really need to watch,î she said.

OíMara-Meyer said the assignment was much harder for the kids whose entire families didnít turn off the TV. Several students agreed with that.

The most interesting comment to me came from Luke Werner. I asked if the week without TV would make a difference in the long run. Luke shook his head. ìI canít stop watching,î he said.

I had to commend Luke on his honesty. The program sounds great, in fact it is great. It exposed these kids to an alternative to the idiot box and the computer games. But we have gotten very used to these things, addicted if you will. If you think Iím wrong, try turning off the TV for a week, or even a day.

I often think about life before TV. Talking to people of my motherís generation, when they didnít have that temptation sitting in the living room, I wonder how that made them different people. Iím not saying it was better, because pre-TV generations had plenty of problems, as do we. But they must have read more, done more outside, visited more, played music or games more, interacted more. Those are all things that the kids told me they were doing last Friday. And they are all good things.

It is very interesting food for thought.

My hat is off to the staff and students that participated in this worthwhile program, and to PACE for sponsoring it.

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