I am reading a book called Street Gang. It is the complete history of Sesame Street. I find the book very interesting. In the mid 1960’s the question came up at dinner, “Do you think television can teach?” The was mentioned after a father was commenting on how hooked on television his 3 year old daughter was. Thus the idea for Sesame Street was born. The show was to be aimed at inner city kids, in order to get them ready for school. Their goal was to make learning fun and to teach children the alphabet, how to count and other necessary skills to do well in school. The show was and is a huge success as they continue to teach these preschool skills.
This lead me to wonder if the introduction of educational TV has anything to do with schools teaching reading at earlier ages than in years past. I wonder if educational TV has been successful and if it has raised the standard of what we expect our children to know before they even go to school. I think babies and children can learn plenty from watching quality shows. Anybody else have any thoughts?
I had Seasme Street while growing. My mum attributes this show to me knowing all my ABC’s (thanks big bird) and counting 1-20. My mum today is still a huge fan of sesame street for kids because of what the show taught me.
I think great quality education children’s shows can teach. I know YBCR has taught my child a lot of words I also know that signing time has also taught my child words and is helping her to read.
I can not comment yet on LR or LM because I have not tested her but she loves LR.
I think Multi Media is the education of the future and great quality tv programming will be part of that. I understand that many paediatricians are against tv for under two’s but I live in the real world and have seen the benefits of quality programming.
I am lucky enough to have a media centre where I can record tv shows and have the adds skipped so my child is not exposed to commercials. (which I think undermine great quality programming)
I believe that Seasme Street was a pioneer in educational television. Even today after 35 years on the tv show has relevance and I think its huge success has come from the fact that they continue to teach children in a fun way and because the children who watched it 20 years ago are now letting their children watch it, shows that sesame street is still producing a high quality educational program.
My mom also attributes a lot of our early learning to Sesame Street. I don’t like where the show has gone, but the old ones from 10 years ago and older are great. My son loves Sesame Street more than any other videos I show him, so I happily let him watch. They teach such a wide variety of subjects in a way that captures kids’ attention.
I thought that Sesame Street was created to help the inner city kids (that’s why you see so many minorities in early episodes) b/c the schools were so behind. I have the original episodes, and they talked about that at the beginning. The inner city kids were falling behind and their parents were often so busy working long hours or extra jobs (or doing other things, I suppose), that they used the TV as a babysitter. The creators figured that if the kids were watching TV, they might as well watch something that would teach things the schools were having problems with.
I think there are benefits to educational shows as opposed to drivelly animated rubbish. PBS in the US seems to be full of great stuff. I wished I’d been exposed to educational television as a kid. I believe it would have benefited me. I am fascinated by clips on Youtube I’ve been discovering by the electric company and slim goodbody which proves there were some other good programs around in the early Sesame Street era. Anyone have any memories of other educational programs from way back that we might be able to find on youtube?
I remember watching The Electric Company when I grew up, and there was also this show on Nickelodeon called Mr. Wizard’s World which I totally loved. Of course, we were hooked on Sesame Street as well, which is what we got to watch in the morning on weekends. There was also 3-2-1 Contact back in the 80s.
I used to watch Electric Company, although I can’t remember much of it anymore. I need to look up some clips of it. It was made by the creators of Sesame Street as well.
Yes, I agree to a certain extent that televised educational programming aids children in learning. But I would hence the “aids.” Because, we must ask if there are unseen side effects as well. I think that the parents, guardians, and older siblings must be the primary instructor. Face to face learning, such as, reading and flash cards help kids learn interpersonal social skills that I do not think a television can adequately fulfill. TV learning as a supplement may have great benefits rather than that of a primary instructor. Subsequently, we will only expedite a world that is already moving away from direct human contact, i.e., automated check-outs at the supermarket, ATMs, distance learning, etc.
I have discovered They Might Be Giants or TMBG on YouTube which teaches Science, history, reading, languages, maths, geography in song! I have uploaded some to the video gallery.
I like the song because it teaches but it isn’t dull. It has a nice beat to it. I think someone should pay you for all the research you do. You find tons of great stuff.
Back home in India, we didnt have ANY form of educational television when I was growing up. We literally barely had watchable television and by the time we did have some good educational programs, we had already grown. Comparing that with ALL the material I have downloaded and bought for my daughter - including YBCR, LR/LM, Brainy Baby CDs, Brilliant Baby CDs, Baby song collection, Kidsongs Collections, Wilbooks, The Wiggles, Baby Einstein, The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse collection… name it… I use every possible good exposure to useful information for my daughter - we dont have much of a good choice of edu shows in the UAE… hence these downloads really help.
The point simply is that my daughter knows things I STILL DONT know today and thats amazing - I feel like 2 generations older and extremely proud and happy that all my efforts are helping… my idea is not that she should be a genius but certainly that she should know everything and be happy learning.
There is absolutely no doubt that educational television helps and in this day and age when there is information overload and explosion, it makes sense in exposing our children to controlled information in the early formative years… it will become a foundation for a lifetime.
You find tons of great stuff.