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 stare until their eyes pop out.
They sit and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it.

Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window still.
But did you ever stop to wonder what
This does to your beloved rot?

IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOME AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!

'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'

We'll answer this by asking you,
What  used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'

THEY... USED... TO... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ and then proceed
To READ some more, Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!

Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distance shores
where smougglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your T.V. set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.

Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts.They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.