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...