The most important thing we’ve learned,
\nSo far as children are concerned,
\nIs never, NEVER, NEVER let
\nThem near your television set —
\nOr better still, just don’t install
\nThe idiotic thing at all.
\nIn almost every house we’ve been,
\nWe’ve watched them gaping at the screen.
\nThey loll and slop and lounge about,
\nAnd stare until their eyes pop out.
\n(Last week in someone’s place we saw
\nA dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
\nThey sit and stare and stare and sit
\nUntil they’re hypnotised by it,
\nUntil they’re absolutely drunk
\nWith all that shocking ghastly junk.
\nOh yes, we know it keeps them still,
\nThey don’t climb out the window sill,
\nThey never fight or kick or punch,
\nThey leave you free to cook the lunch
\nAnd wash the dishes in the sink —
\nBut did you ever stop to think,
\nTo wonder just exactly what
\nThis does to your beloved tot?
\nIT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
\nIT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
\nIT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
\nIT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
\nHE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
\nA FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
\nHIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
\nHIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
\nHE CANNOT THINK — HE ONLY SEES!
\n‘All right!’ you’ll cry. ‘All right!’ you’ll say,
\n‘But if we take the set away,
\nWhat shall we do to entertain
\nOur darling children? Please explain!’
\nWe’ll answer this by asking you,
\n‘What used the darling ones to do?
\n‘How used they keep themselves contented
\nBefore this monster was invented?’
\nHave you forgotten? Don’t you know?
\nWe’ll say it very loud and slow:
\nTHEY … USED … TO … READ! They’d READ and READ,
\nAND READ and READ, and then proceed
\nTo READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
\nOne half their lives was reading books!
\nThe nursery shelves held books galore!
\nBooks cluttered up the nursery floor!
\nAnd in the bedroom, by the bed,
\nMore books were waiting to be read!
\nSuch wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
\nOf dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
\nAnd treasure isles, and distant shores
\nWhere smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
\nAnd pirates wearing purple pants,
\nAnd sailing ships and elephants,
\nAnd cannibals crouching ’round the pot,
\nStirring away at something hot.
\n(It smells so good, what can it be?
\nGood gracious, it’s Penelope.)
\nThe younger ones had Beatrix Potter
\nWith Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
\nAnd Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
\nAnd Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
\nJust How The Camel Got His Hump,
\nAnd How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
\nAnd Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
\nThere’s Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
\nOh, books, what books they used to know,
\nThose children living long ago!
\nSo please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
\nGo throw your TV set away,
\nAnd in its place you can install
\nA lovely bookshelf on the wall.
\nThen fill the shelves with lots of books,
\nIgnoring all the dirty looks,
\nThe screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
\nAnd children hitting you with sticks-
\nFear not, because we promise you
\nThat, in about a week or two
\nOf having nothing else to do,
\nThey’ll now begin to feel the need
\nOf having something to read.
\nAnd once they start — oh boy, oh boy!
\nYou watch the slowly growing joy
\nThat fills their hearts. They’ll grow so keen
\nThey’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
\nIn that ridiculous machine,
\nThat nauseating, foul, unclean,
\nRepulsive television screen!
\nAnd later, each and every kid
\nWill love you more for what you did.<\/p>\n
By Roald Dahl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The most important thing we’ve learned, So far as children are concerned, Is never, NEVER, NEVER let Them near your television set — Or better still, just don’t install The idiotic thing at all. In almost every house we’ve been, We’ve watched them gaping at the screen. They loll and slop and lounge about, And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autres-poemes","category-reflexions","category-51","category-37","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161,"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions\/1161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/saber-benmimoun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}