Behavior: Getting Unplugged

How to beat TV addiction in four not-so-easy lessons

The television, its electrical cord trailing in the dirt like a useless tail, its great eye blank in the midday sun, was sitting in the center of the playground. In a semicircle around it stood a dozen four-year-olds, their eyes glazed, staring intently at the dark screen. Three adults emerged from the adjacent schoolhouse and lifted the set into the back of a station wagon. As the car pulled away, several of the children rushed to the wire fence, pushed their outstretched hands through the loops, and cried plaintively: "Goodbye, Mr. TV....