"worse than that though, a lot of kids shows don't have this actual engaging interaction, they're actively mind numbing in a way that is intolerable to adults."
YES THIS.
Sesame Street was literally developed to close the interaction gap between kids with socioeconomic disadvantages and kids from higher socioeconomic statuses. Kids, especially poor kids of colour, were at a disadvantage when they went to kindergarten. They hadn't heard as many words, hadn't been read to, hadn't been exposed to letters and numbers by their parents. This wasn't because their parents didn't want to, but because their parents had to work or they only had one parent or their families didn't have housing stability so there was a load of stress. In some cases, this was a longterm intergenerational issue. Their parents weren't able to give intense interactions with them because they were tired and they hadn't had the interactions as a child that would model to them this type of interaction.
Sesame Street was entertainment, sure, but entertainment wasn't the primary goal. The primary goal was vocabulary building, social skills modelling, and education. It was about teaching children to be a human, not just entertainment. Now most educational television is about teaching facts and figures. Just like they've removed so much recess from schools that they're damaging children's social development, children's television doesn't develop children's social development. It's too academics forward and without those deep interactions, it needs the zaniness to keep kids' attention.
Note the way Ernie's eyes are slightly crossed. This is an art technique to allow a statue or painting to 'make eye contact' with people from a variety of angles. The kids watching this segment would feel like Ernie was making eye contact with them and speaking directly to them. He doesn't need to say their name or 'hey kids' or address them directly. He's talking. To a camera. And through that camera, he's making eye contact with the children watching and he's demonstrating thoughts that people have in their heads, ways people analyse the world, and that there's more to life than just that analysis (love! Even though he thinks he has nothing in common with the baby!!). Then right at the end, there's that raspy little laugh that shows that actually even when you can't see the similarities between two people, they can still be there, hidden. It's a simple, engaging lesson. It's only a minute long, which is the right length for a preschooler's attention span.
It's so well done and we need so much more of it, because these gaps are returning, especially with kids who were born during or were toddlers during the height of the pandemic.
andulkaphoto
theartofmadeline
titsay
jbbartram-illu
