20 years on Sesame Street

20 Years on Sesame Street

Several significant changes have occurred in our approach to education in recent decades. One change is the increased attention focused on the heretofore underserved child, principally the child living in poverty. A second change centers on helping the child earlier in life to develop both cognitive and social skills.

The major educational approach to assisting the underserved child is not through books - the child needs help before he gets to school and learns to read - but through television programming, which is accessible to children, poor and rich, in all parts of our country. Sesame Street, the first major TV program to use this approach to early childhood education, first aired on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) 20 years ago, on November 10, 1969.

Sesame Street was developed under the inspired leadership of Joan Ganz Cooney and the creative direction of Jan Stone. It was Mr. Stone who chose the familiar format of an inner-city street in a run-down neighborhood, with a small, unimposing store and a large, clanky garbage can. The goal of the show was to narrow the cognitive and experiential gap between inner-city children of poverty and their middle-class peers. The first audience of children, though, was drawn from all walks of life; the present audience, an estimated 11 million households weekly, also draws from all walks of life, and includes children of the children who first viewed the program.

The program has won 33 Emmy Awards. Its accomplishments are being celebrated this year with an exhibit in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Entitled Sesame Street, 1969-1989: The First 20 Years, this exhibit elegantly displays familiar Muppets: Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Slimey. Mr. Hooper's storefront is also there. The Smithsonian calls the exhibit an appropriate representation of modern educational trends in America, combining as it does the techniques of commercial television with educational content. In November, a Sesame Street film/ animation retrospective will open at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Sesame Street is produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), a nonprofit, educational corporation based in New York City. It is the most heavily researched series on television.[1] The target audience includes children between the ages of two and five, with special emphasis on the needs of children from low-income families. Viewership approaches saturation among preschoolers in all areas of the United States where the program is broadcast.

Most of the PBS member stations air the hour-long programs yearround in both the morning and afternoon, and many repeat shows on the weekend. Sesame Street is funded by the member stations of PBS and by royalties from commercial product licenses and revenues generated by the international broadcast of CTW programs. The English language version of Sesame Street is seen in more than 80 countries. There are 15 international co-productions.[2]

While the physical setting of Sesame Street is indeed modest (when you are on the actual set, you realize how very modest it is compared to elaborate commercial sets), its horizons are limitless. People who inhabit Sesame Street are forceful individuals, from multi-racial and multi-ethnic backgrounds, possessed of considerable imagination. They hang out with uncommon creatures - including Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch - who are also forceful and imaginative. All these characters ask intelligent questions about the larger world; they enjoy learning; they dance and make music; they fall down and make mistakes. Although the principal setting is a high-density, inner-city street, and the children who appear on the show are most often residents of New York City, other areas of the country and the world outside of the United States are also pictured, discussed and enjoyed.

In the early years, goals of the program were lower than they are now. Over time they have forced a revision in the early childhood education curriculum in schools because children arrive in kindergarten knowing letters of the alphabet, counting skills and social skills. Sesame Street works aggressively at developing cognitive skills. Each program is sponsored by a letter and a number, which appear often during the hour, in large and small type. The letter is followed by words and objects which begin with the letter:

P, p: parrot, possum, pinwheel, parade, painter. The number is followed by groups of objects totaling the number:

7 : seven rabbits, seven hats, seven ice cream cones, seven bicycles. The letters and numbers are fun and funny, so the viewer is attracted to them and pays attention to them.

Affective behaviors on Sesame Street are also carefully presented. Individuals shown include a motley crew of young and old, black and white and brown, female and male, strong and weak bodied, tall and small. These individuals interact with each other in play and in problem-solving, treating the other with dignity and respect, while cognizant of the other's foibles. In addition to a respect for individuals, there is a respect for cultural groups. Sesame Street is light years from the street of Dick and Jane. Different cultures are represented, and their songs and dances, their myths and rituals, are celebrated.

Children's Television Workshop also produces more advanced TV programs for older children, including The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, and Square One TV on PBS and Encyclopedia, a series on Home Box Office (HBO). CTW has entered other media as well. It publishes books and magazines; licenses toys, games, and other products; and works with other production groups around the world to produce programs based on the Sesame Street model. There is a Sesame Street Book Club to help teach children about letters and numbers, about relationships and about getting along with others. Typical Sesame Street books include Jeffrey Moss' People in Your Neighborhood (1971) and People in My Family (1971), and Kay Wood's The Sesame Street Little Library (1977), consisting of four volumes: The Monsters' Alphabet, Ernie and Bert's Counting Book, Big Bird's Shape Book, and Grover's Favorite Color.[3]

The popularity as well as the credibility of Sesame Street has prompted community and other organizations to come to it for help in disseminating public safety messages to children and their parents.[4] One such example is The Federal Emergency Management Agency's U.S. Fire Administration, which asked CTW if television, through Sesame Street, could be used to help teach fire safety to young children.

After careful study, CTW concluded that some fire safety topics and messages lent themselves readily to television treatment for young children, but that a comprehensive project to teach fire safety to pre-schoolers went beyond those messages that could be demonstrated safely on television. At the request of the U.S. Fire Administration, CTW developed a fire safety curriculum appropriate to the TV series. It then developed materials to help fire-fighters, parents and caregivers teach real-life skills for fire safety, with necessary reinforcement and practice. Songs and skits teaching specific behaviors, as well as recommended teaching techniques for their effective use, were prepared. Dissemination of the information ranged from cable television teleconferences to face-to-face training workshops. The project linked firefighters and fire safety educators to preschoolers, their parents and their caregivers through fire safety festivals, training workshops to certify parents and teachers as Sesame Street Fire Safety Educators, and other activities designed to increase public awareness and action for fire safety.

Sesame Street is an ever-experimenting, ever-changing production, which is why it continues to attract a large, multi-cultural audience of children. Its commitment to children of poverty, to helping them develop cognitive and social skills, remains the same. It is difficult to predict what new issues, ideas and educational techniques will appear on the program in the next 20 years. We congratulate Big Bird, his friends and neighbors on their 20th anniversary, as we continue to watch carefully the happenings on Sesame Street.

Mary Lystad, Ph.D., is Chief, Emergency Services Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, and the author of several articles and books on literature for children.

[1.] S. Ball and G.A. Bogatz, "A Summary of the Major Findings, in The First Year of Sesame Street: An Evaluation," Princeton, N.J., Educational Testing Service, 1970, and S. Ball and G.A. Bogatz, "A Summary of the Major Findings, in The Second Year of Sesame Street: An Evaluation," Princeton, N.J., Educational Testing Service, 1971. [2.] Children's Television Workshop, New York, 1989. [3.] J. Moss, People in My Family, Racine, Wis., Western Publishing Company, 1971; J. Moss., People in Your Neighborhood, Racine, Wis., Western Publishing Company, 1971; and K. Wood, The Sesame Street Little Library, New York, Random House, 1977. [4.] E.P. Davis, "Big Bird Teaches Fire and Hurricane Safety," in M. Lystad (Ed.) Mental Health Response to Mass Emergencies, New York, Brunner/Mazel, 1988.

PHOTO : Elmo visits the Smithsonian.

COPYRIGHT 1989 U.S. Government Printing Office
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group