Stealing Childhood
December 4, 2007
I was sad, though not altogether surprised, to come across an article about Sesame Street and how the old version is not appropriate for today’s preschool audience.
Is there no sense of humor left in our modern politically correct climate? It seems to me that children are being shortchanged by the shortsightedness of s0-called experts that there is little room left for imagination. I am stunned that anyone could think that children will grow up to be monsters just because they saw cookie monster gobbling his way through a plate of cookies.
Do they know what happens when a child pretends to be cookie monster? Cookie crumbs end up all over the place and none land in the tummy and it’s given up. You learn pretty darn quick that cookie monsters’s style doesn’t translate into real life.
Maybe that’s why I can’t stand most of children’s television today. There is no room left for inappropriate behaviour or for the bad guy. If you remove every vestige of the inappropriate and leave only the saccharine sweet and the so-called appropriate, there is nothing left for children to compare and contrast to.
How does that do a child any good at all? When there is no one left to relate to? Because we are not as children or adults, perfect. We have bad feelings and bad thoughts and bad behaviour - and having models that do no wrong does not and will not change that! So why not have someone representing the darker side of personality so that it’s acknowledged as normal to have inappropriate feelings and reactions sometimes. Why can’t we learn from our favourite fuzzy friends that it’s normal to not to be perfect, but still in the end be good people (or puppets as the case may be).
Destroying shows like Sesame Street just so that children are not exposed to inappropriate behaviours is not going to remove bad behaviour in society - they’re just stealing away the best parts of childhood.
Not that I think sitting in front of the television is the best use of a preschooler’s time, but let’s face it - hundreds of thousands of children are going to watch TV. I’d personally rather it has some characters that are just a little bit bad. You can learn a whole lot of good from that little bit of bad.
I think things have gone too far nowadays as well. Come on the cookie monster is just plain ridiculous what person or child is really going to be affected by him in the long term?
Mind you, I always did think Sesame street was weird but not harmful in any way.
I think everyone is just a tad too serious nowadays, there’s no room for fun or freedome it seems.
What ever happened to letting children be children and have fun? It seems more and more is expected out of children all the time. They only get one childhood let them enjoy it.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Patrysha. How many of us were raised watching Sesame Street? I think some of us (myself included) might have been better off it we tried to copy Cookie Monster’s style. Then we might not have weight problems from making sure all those cookie crumbs ended up in our mouths.
I agree about the shows today, as well. They’re not true to life and I don’t see how they’re helping our children be any better than we were at their ages.