Some of the more memorable television documentaries in recent years have appeared on the Home Box Office cable network, including the Emmy Award-winning “Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam,” and “aids: Everything You and Your Family Need To Know ... But Were Afraid To Ask.”
These and other hbo programs are now being sold for classroom use through the cable network’s “Project Knowledge.” The project will offer hbo documentaries to schools, libraries, and other institutions, along with study guides containing a bibliography, writing exercises, and other materials.
The study guides have been prepared by hbo in connection with kidsnet, a clearinghouse for information on children’s television and radio.
The Project Knowledge catalogue, which is being marketed by Ambrose Video Publishing, includes historical documentaries, informational programs on health and consumer issues, and animated specials such as “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.”
Further information is available from Ambrose Video Publishing, 381 Park Ave. South, Suite 1601, New York, N.Y. 10016. Phone: (800) 526-4663.
Each year, teenagers are subjected to a “barrage” of sexual acts or references on television--more than 1,300 such images, according to a new study.
Because the average 14- or 15-year-old girl watches more television than her male counterpart--four or five hours every school day, according to the study--she encounters some 1,500 televised images of sex.
Bradley S. Greenberg, a Michigan State University researcher who conducted the study, says the combined impact of sex on television and in the movies imbues the subject with a “tantalizing aura” that is difficult for teenage girls to counterbalance.
The survey of 1,200 high-school students in urban public schools also found that few parents set limits on television viewing. Most teenagers said parents “never” or “not often” limit their viewing.
When it comes to the big screen, the pattern is not much better, according to the survey. The average teenage girl, it found, sees 25 R-rated movies per year; the average teenage boy, 17.
Several popular educational programs on public television are offering teacher guides.
“Square One TV,” a math series on pbs, and “3-2-1 Contact,” a science series, have guides available through the Children’s Television Workshop, One Lincoln Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10023.
Guides for the history series “The American Experience,” which premiered Oct. 4, are available from WNET-tv, 356 West 58th St., New York, N.Y. 10019.--mw
