Reilly says he occasionally made exceptions for PBS and CSPAN.
During last Wednesday’s AMCULT 341 discussion on popular children’s television shows, junior Jim Reilly indicated to his classmates that he could not contribute to the discussion due to the fact that he did not “just grow up sitting in front of the television.”
When classmate Michael Tynes began to explain his joyful memories of coming home and watching SpongeBob every day after school, witnessed stated that Reilly chuckled and caused Professor Edmund Grant to ask if Reilly “found something amusing.”
“To be perfectly honest, we really didn’t turn on the TV much in my house growing up, ” said Reilly as many of his classmates reportedly rolled their eyes. “I think it’s pretty sad, frankly, that so many people in our generation spent their childhoods doing such mundane activities, being glued to screens without expanding their minds. I don’t even know what shows you guys are talking about.”
Reilly went on to claim that whenever he was bored, his parents encouraged him to go play outside, draw, or “use his imagination.” He further explained that his love of reading developed at a young age when he was “devouring the classics of Dickens and Twain.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I had an amazing childhood—I was a voracious reader,” said Reilly. “Watching cartoons may have been fun for some children, but my favorite activities were definitely more intellectually mature. I developed a passion for reading while listening to classical music like Mozart or Beethoven, and that’s something I still do to this day.”
At presstime, Reilly was also telling the class that throughout his childhood, he “never really drank soda or ate fast food.”
