I did a radical thing..., page 1

When I was 11 years old, my mum decided to cut off our cable. I remember that right at the beginning of it, I was upset that I wouldn't be able to watch Pokemon when I got home from school.
That passed quickly.

Then books invaded my world. If I was not outside, running around with friends, I was reading. Some days (which grew into weeks) I would get up, grab the book laying on my bed next to my pillow and read non stop till I slept.

And, it's kind of a sad indicator that people are amazed by my love and voracious hunger for books and knowledge. For example, when doing a novel study on the book "The Chrysalids" By John Wyndham, I took the 200 page novel home on the first day and read it in one sitting, about one hour of reading. The next day, my class was astounded by the fact that I went home and read the book so easily.
As though reading a short novel was a difficult, laborous task.
But these same kids were remarkably adept at recalling the nuances of their favorite television shows.
So, put simply, I love literature and have become fairly skilled with the English language as a result of my mother's decision.

However, I must note that while I still devote a large amount of time to reading, I have also devoured series of television on DVD at a kind of scary rate. The same goes for video games, and I learned just as much as I did from books as from these sources. I don't think this is a bad thing. I spent my early teenage years reading and playing the occasional old video game for fun. Now, I know what I like and why I like it.

I guess this may have gotten a little long-winded and off-topic. I think what you've done is a good idea, but don't deprive your kids of those things entirely. A little bit of these things aren't harmful. It would probably be beneficial still if you let your kids watch a certain number of hours of TV a week. TV and games teach important cultural lessons to children, like what slang words mean, or how they are expected to act in some situations (though admittedly, games most of the time do not apply to life). I faced a few vaguely embarassing scenarios because I didn't understand the colloquialisms my friends used.

In general, you have a good idea, and it's easy to see where you're coming from, but try to remember the purpose things like television served in the first place:
A way to communicate and share our human experiences, whatever type of experience they may be.