#35 - Sesame Street - Knickers in a Twist

Sesame Street is releasing a series of videos designed for children under the age of two.

The American Academy of Pediatrics have their knickers in a twist over this one. Children under the age of two don't need television.

I happen to agree with that, but...

The reality is that some parents...

oh heck, let's admit this...

MANY parents plop their kids in front of the television.

I would rather have the next generation plopped in front of Sesame Street than the other junk floating about in the great unwashed masses of television shows available.

I think back to when my little guy was two.

He would not utter one word... not a peep.

My sister told me to let him watch television.

My overly educated self went into hysterics... briefly.

Television!!

Oh no!!

I will ruin my child for life!!

But, I was desperate... and Little Bear was allowed to watch Teletubbies.

I hated Teletubbies, but the programming appealed to my ever silent toddler.

He started cooing and talking back to the baby floating in the sunshine. He mimcked the early language used by Dipsy, Tinky-Winky, Lala and Po.

Lo and behold... our son eventually turned into a chatterbox.

Frank McCourt eloquently explains in his book 'TIS, that these television shows are the mythology of our childhood.

I learned classical music through Bugs Bunny which has led to an almost four decades long love affair with the piano.

I learned how to find happiness in growing up in a large family of six kids by tuning in every week to The Brady Bunch. Those kids were happy, and kind... I learned to dream that for my family.

I made bag puppets and hid behind card tables enetertaining myself and anyone in my vicinity for hours while imitating Jim Henson's muppets from Sesame Street. As a teacher and then counselor... I continued to use hand puppets to educate and heal.

I met Gene Kelly through Tom and Jerry and took up dancing in front of a mirror until I eventually got the chance to dance on a stage in front of an audience.


The television provides the storyline to our childhood.

The fairy tales, the myths that are so desperately needed to help our young minds form meaning out of this huge big world.

And after teaching and counseling over one thousand kids in my career... quite frankly, some children would do a far bit better plopped in front of Sesame Street and absorbing that mythology than the horrors that await them in their real world.

My son started with "The Count" on Sesame Street (numbers are still his passion), and now has a very rich imganitive play life full of the storylines of SpongeBob Squarepants and The Fairly OddParents.

I hope he grows up as quirky as we, his parents did. Delving from the humor of his childhood.

Should we plop our kids in front of television?

No.

But, the American Academy of Pediatrics needs a reality check.

People are gong to use the television.

Ninety-eight percent of us in the U.S. have at least one television in our home.

Try working a bit harder on helping parents to find the energy in their lives to be more active in their parenting roles. Look at healing society's ills that cause exhausted and desperate parents to turn to the television as babysitter.

Stop tromping around on an organization that is trying to make the best out of what is already there... and put the money and effort in fixing the root of the problem... because folks, it's not Sesame Street that is going to create a generation of vacuous drooling t.v. watchers.

© Copyright 2006, WBFO



RESOURCES:
1) AOL News: entertainment tv articles - Sesame Street Videos Spark Controversy
2) American Academy of Pediatrics Web Site
3) PBS Kids: Sesame Street
4) relationships : electronic babysitters