June 18, 2007

Summer School

By Seth Arenstein

While it’s premature to add another "week" to your cable calendar, a few years hence the industry may regularly refer to early June as "Education Week in D.C." To judge by events earlier this month, that would be good.

And if those who educate children are some of your favorite earthlings, then devoting a few days to recognizing them, discussing issues and letting them bask a bit in cable’s dedication to education is a very good thing.

It would have been more than enough if Time Warner Cable had brought deserving educators to Washington in early summer to honor them at a dinner as winners of its National Teacher Awards, a tradition begun 18 years ago by Lynn Yeager.

This year was even better. In addition to the awards dinner and sightseeing, in the midst of incredibly balmy weather for Washington, the teachers visited one of cable’s best educators, Brian Lamb of C-SPAN. And by coincidence, winners of Cable in the Classroom’s third annual Leaders in Learning Awards were in town to pick up their trophies the next night, so a joint working lunch on education issues was arranged for both groups at NCTA headquarters.

Also in town, for an NCTA board meeting, were chieftains like Brian Roberts and Pat Esser. Each presented awards that evening during Cable in the Classroom’s well-attended ceremony, held, appropriately, in the magnificent Library of Congress.

During both nights, broadband’s importance in education was a constant theme, as was the need for educators, parents and students to improve their knowledge of online dangers. In fact, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, accepting an award, challenged cable to improve media literacy. Unknown to Copps, earlier in the day NCTA members pledged to do so, kicking off an impressive multi-platform campaign called PointSmartClickSafe. The effort includes a cable-hosted summit, at a date and site to be decided, to discuss online safety. Might we suggest holding that summit in Washington, in early June.

This month cable operators can help another fine educator, Cable Positive. To publicize National HIV Testing Day, June 27, operators can run the group’s PSAs (free in beta and DVD) throughout June and in a PSA roadblock on the 27th at 7:59 ET.