Richard Termine
The show's original intent was to present enjoyable and beguiling preschool education to poor children who did not have access to decent preschools while bringing diversity to children's programming. Forty years later, the program is a cultural landmark - it has taught generations of children to count, countless parents how to teach and is seen in 125 countries around the world.
When it debuted in 1969, it was the mixture of whimsy, pop music and didactic rigor that distinguished "Sesame Street" from everything else. That year "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" was the No. 1 show in the nation; "Mod Squad" was a hit, and so was "Julia," the first network series to star an African-American actress in a nonstereotypical role.
"Sesame Street" took its breezy magazine format and sock-it-to-me comic style from "Laugh-In," but its commitment to "relevance," in the parlance of the times, was in tune with the most serious social issues of the era.
Over the years, the pedagogy hasn't changed but the look and tone of "Sesame Street" has evolved. It's still a messianic show, but the mission has shifted to the more immediate concerns of pediatricians and progressive parents, especially when it comes to childhood obesity. "Sesame Street" takes the Muppets, rhymes and visual verve that were developed to instill tolerance, racial pride and equality, to preach exercise and healthy eating.
Forty years on, this is your mother's "Sesame Street," only better dressed and gentrified: Sesame Street by way of Park Slope. The opening is no longer a realistic rendition of urban skyline but an animated, candy-colored chalk drawing of a preschool Arcadia, with flowers and butterflies and stars. The famous set, brownstones and garbage bins, has lost the messy graffiti and gritty smudges of city life over the years. Now there are green spaces, tofu and yoga. — Alessandra Stanley
Sesame is really the coolest show. I read that they are going to be introducing a new puppet named Lily who's a bit different than the others. She comes from an impoverished family facing hunger issues mainly. (Walmart is behind this, I'm I the only one who finds this ironic?) What a way of raising awareness and what a way of exposing the younglings to these kinds of problems. Once again, go Sesame Street.
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ReplyDeleteHi again,
ReplyDeleteI NEED to respond to Beatrice. Here's a list of men who have been in jail and who have came out transformed mentally.
- Malcolm X: He was in jail from 1946 to 1952, copied the dictionary in prison and "reformed" himself in the prison (stopped drugs, gave up alcohol, promiscuity etc.)
- Nelson Mandela: He was in jail from 1962 to 1989 (I think), he had a correspondence with the University of London and received a Bachelors Degree in Law.
- Verlaine: Arrested in 1873 for trying to kill Rimbaud, he converts to Roman Catholicism which influences his poems IMMENSELY. Here's a poem by Verlaine in Romance sans paroles which was published during his sentence:
Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville;
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénètre mon coeur?
O bruit doux de la pluie
Par terre et sur les toits!
Pour un coeur qui s'ennuie
O le chant de la pluie!
Il pleure sans raison
Dans ce coeur qui s'écoeure
Quoi! nulle trahison?...
Ce deuil est sans raison.
C'est bien la pire peine
De ne savoir pourquoi
Sans amour et sans haine
Mon coeur a tant de peine!
These are the only three I remember but yea, people can come out of jail with different perspectives no matter how short or long their jail time is.
Hey! This is a response to the same point Sylvana responded to in the comment above.
ReplyDeleteIts true to a some extent that prison does actually imprison--body and mind--some people in accordance to the government's hopes.
However, Thoreau makes two points proving the opposite.
First of all, he thinks that the government is wasting their trying to imprison someone's body and think in such a close-minded way.
Second of all, in his narrative, he talks a lot about the discussion he has with his cell-mate and how he feels part of a whole other community--past prisoners, the markings on the wall, etc...
Thoreau doesn't feel imprisoned while in jail and urges people to see through the futility of it. Beatrice has a point when she says some people are negatively affected by prison, but not Henry. He takes that even further by the whole civil disobedience idea