To make adequate use of mass media for children's education, we must recognize that the medium is the message, that the conveyer is the content. The medium itself changes behavior, learning and growth patterns of the child. For example television itself teaches a special kind of visual awareness and enhances the ability to relate non-immediate mediated experience to live experience. Once this is recognized, we can begin making better use of media for educational goals. Our educational goals for children are: to prepare individuals for effective participation as citizens; to encourage self-realization; to develop vocational skills; to foster ethical and aesthetic growth. But educational media have not done much to help meet these goals. Educational programming aimed at children has been inadequate. Changes are needed. We should start by recognizing the considerable impact of TV on youth, and by agreeing that a primary goal of TV should be to meet children's educational needs. (MG)