The power for young minds is back on

Here is something that probably escaped all mention or notice as the inauguration has approached. An old friend is about to return to the nation.

Yes a favorite of tens of millions will be returning to television. A show seen across the land, and has led to some of the greatest stars in recent decades. Well at least 2 anyway. I’m sure some of my younger readers are thinking, ‘But American Idol already started its season’. Such a thought is nowhere near the answer.

The show in fact is far more intelligent, and universal in appeal. It’s the Electric Company.



Now fans of the early Sesame Street, a program now considered too adult for children, will know this show in a second. The 2 programs were the hallmark of PBS in my youth. Educational, fun, and captivating. Long into our teens, many watch these programs.

And it was quite the surprise the day that Morgan Freeman, known to us best as Easy Reader on Electric Company, became a movie star. But at the same time having him portray characters larger than life, or with enormous gravitas, seemed welcome with his familiar presence.

And Rita Moreno is no minor B-actress. She is a star of stage and films. She was one of a few Latina/Hispanic women to rise to fame during the 70’s and 80’s. Today she is still a star and has no less a commanding presence. And unlike the multitude of actresses today, she is without the scandal and tarnished image that so many young girls are fed by the media as attributes of success and fame.



But Electric Company was taken of the air. And Sesame Street was left alone, helping children learn and grow. PBS became a lonelier place.

Now that will change. As will the Electric Company. A new generation of young adults will takeover. Their goal is the same though. To help kids (and occasionally adults too) learn to read english.

But the means of these lessons, and new words, is quite different. This will be a narrative story. Based almost like a series. With bad guys, and a plot driven story as opposed to situational skits. And I almost forgot about the song-and-dance routines in the New York City streets.

I am sure this is part of the new kid safe programming that condemns the old Sesame Street to adult only ratings. As such I am filled with foreboding about the presentation, and its ability to educate the masses. The goal of this program is not ratings, or future superstardom of its talent pool, but the children expanding their minds. Still the Electric Company has not turned on its lights yet. That comes on January 23rd.

Will this be the joyous program of the past? No. Will it be a boon to children across the nation? Possibly. Will Easy Reader ever make a special appearance on the program? They can only hope and pray he would.

Yet, for all the misgivings I have about the new paradigm in education, and children’s television and programming, I truly hope this will instill a desire to learn and read. Children need whatever motivation we can give them to expand their minds beyond the brain-numbing life-limiting fare of American Idol, gangsta rap videos, reality television, and children-know-best programs that proliferate the various networks these days.

So I hope when the call goes out, “Hey you guys!”, the response will be minds turning on and not just television sets.

Sesame Street, the real danger to our children. Are you serious? Part 3

Concluded from Sesame Street, the real danger to our children. Are you serious? Part 2...



Hmmm… Learning the alphabet, with humor. Expressing love and presenting diversity and tolerance. Compassion. Patience. Are all these qualities we want our kids to avoid today?

Yes life is jaded today. Today we teach kids to fear strangers, family members and television shows. There aren’t just monsters under the bed; they are everywhere the child goes. Kids don’t go outside and play, burning off the cookie or 3 they just had as a snack, anymore. They sit and play video games, surf the net, and listen to iPods while eating a box of whatever Sugar Bomb Pops is handy, washing it down with a liter of some name brand soda.

Kids get to watch cartoons 24/7 now. There is no mere 3 hours of animated shows after school ends and just 5 hours on Saturday morning. No kids today don’t have to wait. They have it all the time on demand. Screw patience and learning time management skills, they have 500 channels of HDTV, Tivo, DVD’s, and YouTube. Why bother going outside and interacting with others building social networks and skills. They can text message or IM people they know and don’t know.

Diversity? If you mean being able to get in touch with masses of unseen, unknown people separated merely by screen names, in a cold and emotionless medium that conveys little to no context, then I suppose they get more now.

Seriously, the issue is not that Sesame Street is fictional or filled with “limited possibilities and fixed identities”. The issue is that some are so obsessed with seeking out flaws, resolving issues with drugs (like Prozac), and avoiding the fact that kids are not miniature adults that they miss the point. Life between 2-5 should be simple and filled with love and care. It isn’t always, but do we really need to force that reality on minds that are still trying to learn the alphabet and 2+2=4?

Sesame Street, the real danger to our children. Are you serious? Part 2

Continued from Sesame Street, the real danger to our children. Are you serious? Part 1...

I have to pause to give an example of the ‘junkie’ Cookie Monster in action. I use this video clip specifically because when I spoke with a friend of mine about this article, the song C is for Cookie was mentioned. Without pause or thought, I rattled of the main chorus of the song perfectly.



Now I wonder, how terrible is Cookie Monster? In using a snack that all young children are familiar with, presented by an obviously non-human fuzzy creature more reminiscent of a Teddy bear than a monster, he helps kids learn letters in the alphabet, introduces the concept of planets and astronomy (i.e. the moon), provide the thought of equality and diversity (the monsters in the chorus in the background), spatial geometry (the similar shapes), and the benefit of having an imagination. And he then eats a cookie. Then again he is a cookie monster. The horror. You just can’t let kids see that.

But that is not the only problem with Sesame Street according to this article.

“People on “Sesame Street” had limited possibilities and fixed identities, and (the best part) you weren’t expected to change much. The harshness of existence was a given, and no one was proposing that numbers and letters would lead you “out” of your inner city to Elysian suburbs. Instead, “Sesame Street” suggested that learning might merely make our days more bearable, more interesting, funnier. It encouraged us, above all, to be nice to our neighbors and to cultivate the safer pleasures that take the edge off — taking baths, eating cookies, reading. Don’t tell the kids.”

Let me show you a common example of the “harshness of existence” exemplified on this television program that I recall from my early years.

Concluded in part 3...

Sesame Street, the real danger to our children. Are you serious?

America we are in trouble. I mean serious and deep trouble. It’s not because of an eventual attack from fanatical extremists, or the potential of duplicitous individuals being elected to political office. It has nothing to do with the definite problems to the economy that are fueled by growing costs for oil and the expanding number of homes being foreclosed. No, this insidious virus comes from a small place in America, called Sesame Street. At least that’s what some would like you to believe.

This is incredulous. The degree of idiocy that causes some to propose that the early programs of Sesame Street are ‘inappropriate’ for children and that it should be ‘adults-only’ staggers my mind. In my opinion, anyone that could hold such a view first has never seen the show as a child and second has serious issues.

Of the programs on television in my lifetime, if not before it as well, I think only the Electric Company and the animated Charlie Brown and Dr. Seuss specials match the quality and sincerity found at Sesame Street. No violence, no bad language, real people (mostly but quite a few monsters that are as scary as Teddy bears), adults that are involved and not stupid, a diversity of cultures races and ethnicities that is unmatched anywhere in the real world. A dedication to provide kids with an interest in education, and helping them with the building blocks. And above all an understanding that children are not dumb or mindless and treats them with respect.

But for all that, and the millions that watched Sesame Street we now have what I would call ‘idiots with titles’ trying to keep the show from our children.

Virginia Heffernan wrote a piece on the Sesame Street DVD that is now available. Initially I thought this was a satirical commentary. I hope that I have misread her context. But you can decide for your self.

“What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.”

Sounds sarcastic right? But she goes on to say

“Originally designed by Jim Henson for use in commercials for General Foods International and Frito-Lay, Cookie Monster was never a righteous figure. His controversial conversion to a more diverse diet wouldn’t come until 2005, and in the early seasons he comes across a Child’s First Addict.”

Now if I read that second quote correctly Cookie Monster was just called a junkie. Hell, how did everyone from 45 to 22 not become a crack addict? Well maybe not everyone since according to the 1979 New York Times the program was targeted to, shudder at the thought, “4-year-old inner-city black youngster[s]”.

Continued in Part 2...