mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
I didn’t watch much TV as a child, but what I did was educational. I rarely watched Looney Tunes or Power Rangers, instead keeping the tube fixed to PBS. And my life’s been richer for it. Or so I thought. For some reason, more and more people keep stepping forward to let me know how my beloved PBS actually ruined my life?! I’m still not sold, but let’s take a look at a few of the theories:
Mr. Rogers made me lazy
Last week, a finance professor at Louisiana State University made waves when he blamed Mr. Rogers for making college students lazy. Don Chance, noticing that his students always approached him asking for an A at the end of the semester, sought an explanation for his students’ apparent sense of entitlement. He placed the blame on the “you’re special” culture with The Red Sweatered One at the figurehead. Chance called Rogers “representative of a culture of excessive doting,” where parents and other adults in children’s lives simply give them what they want without making them work.
Sesame Street made me want my MTV
Quick cuts, funny sketches, dynamic characters, catchy songs. Please, Sesame Street is one super sweet birthday party away from MTV. The short segments and bright visuals that define both television staples aren’t just a coincidence, though. This 1997 interview with two highers-up at both Sesame Street and MTV shows how much they have influenced each other. Having watched both (though I’ve seen far more Sesame Street), I can certainly see how a Sesame Street child could be drawn to the visuals on MTV and get sucked into the sex- and bling-obsessed culture.
Captain Planet made me a socialist
I was a devout Planeteer in my days, always listening to the mullet-sporting superhero. Little did I know, he was slowly leading me down the path to anti-capitalism. All of the villains had their roots in industry, but Hoggish Greedly was a pure foil for big business. His plots always involved cutting a profit at the cost of the Earth, whether he was selling all of the fish in the ocean or running an undersea mining operation. His pig-like appearance and appetite only accented his greedy nature and apparently brainwashed me to distrust corporations as a youngin’.
Doin’ the Pigeon stunted my development
As a tot, I would almost daily watch a Sesame Street video, dancing with Bert’s pigeon dance and shedding a tear when Ernie sang “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon.” But was that a huge mistake? Last year, several groups ripped PBS for marketing a DVD to children aged six months to two years. The 2006 release of “Sesame Beginnings,” which was produced with the non-profit group Zero to Three, came under fire because it ran counter to an American Academy of Pediatrics rule that children under two shouldn’t watch television. The academy warns that television at that age can shorten the attention span and impede cognitive development. The rule has fallen on deaf ears, though, since the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 43 percent of children under two watch television daily.
Of course, let’s not forget that children’s TV could be educational and entertaining. Here’s a link to the Monsterpiece Theater rendition of the classic noir The Postman Always Rings Twice.
I wasn’t allowed to watch The Smurfs because “they have New Age ideals.”
posted by katie on 7-13-2007 at 8:38 am
I’m convinced that Sesame Street & the Electric Company gave me ADD. With those pithy, informative, flashy, entertaining bursts of knowledge, who wants to sit down & read a whole book?
Oh, and as a (young) college professor, I can safely say that the “self-esteem movement” of the ’80’s has indeed bred an entire generation of whiners. Whether or not Mr. Rogers had anything to do with it is anyone’s guess.
posted by pica on 7-13-2007 at 9:17 am
Ducktales made me a capitalist.
posted by jake on 7-13-2007 at 10:43 am
The high self-esteem movement actually started before the 80s. It was either in the 60s or 70s that it began (and consequently screwing up generations of kids).
posted by Kate on 7-13-2007 at 10:50 am
Reading Rainbow made it impossible for me to finish any book.
Remember, they would always read the beginning of books and just as it would get interesting they’d say “if you’d like to read this book visit your local library”.
posted by Kristen on 7-13-2007 at 11:18 am
Anything that Sesame Street may have ever done wrong (and that’s very little — probably. I can’t think of anything…) finds redemption in Monsterpiece Theater. These are the greatest things that I have ever seen.
posted by Drew on 7-13-2007 at 12:02 pm
Luckily, the finance professor was from an era influenced by quality mind expanding opportunities like Leave it to Beaver and its message of “find someone to blame.” Kids brains are so elastic, the only way to damage them is to provide low levels of stimulation or affection or inadequate nutrition. Other than that, they’ll be fine. The only real problem was that Mr. Rogers’ shoes were soooo hideous they scared me. That’s how I knew he wasn’t gay, though. Bad shoes. Bad sweater.
posted by Deb on 7-13-2007 at 1:16 pm
salute your shorts made me love awful waffles.
posted by David on 7-13-2007 at 4:33 pm
I find it ironic that this prof. would blame Mr. Rogers and the self esteem movement for creating a generation of whinners when this prof, who I assume to be a babyboomer, came from the era of permisive parenting under Dr Spock. So if the whinners of today are Mr Rogers’ fault then should we blame the 60’s on Dr. Spock?
Also Captian Planet, one of my favorite shows, was produced by Donald Trump, so I think that would automaticaly disprove any notions of anti-capitalist themes.
Lastly, Deb, don’t talk smack about Mr Rogers’ sweaters, his mom knit those!
posted by Xeno on 7-14-2007 at 2:48 am
Xeno, you have the wrong bizarre multi-millionaire in mind - Captain Planet was Ted Turner’s creation, not Donald Trump. By the time Turner had his company produce the show, he had lost most of his capitalist tendencies thanks to his O/C enviromental interests.
Honestly, when you consider Ted was married to Jane Fonda for a decade, its hard to continue to take the man seriously.
posted by Tom on 7-14-2007 at 7:29 am
One must remember that Mr.Rogers and Sesame Street were both on well before the 1980’s. If they are to blame, then we would have been experiencing this “intellectual slump” many years before now. I am 25 years old and teach high school. I have many lazy students. Most of them did not watch PBS. They grew up watching either adult-themed shows or action shows with no intellectual stimulation.
posted by Jacob on 7-14-2007 at 8:26 pm
pica - I have to agree with you about Sesame Street!
posted by JaneM on 7-15-2007 at 7:28 am
Bravo InternJason ~ Your best post yet!!
posted by Priscilla on 7-16-2007 at 12:54 pm
this is really informative.
posted by kristyn on 7-17-2007 at 10:02 am
Aren’t we supposed to distrust corporations? I mean about ninety nine percent of them do actually make profits from just dumping all over the Earth. I was under the strict impression that they pretty much are all as evil as that silly cartoon portrayed.
posted by Cory on 10-17-2007 at 4:17 pm
I just saw the Jim Hensen exhibit in DC and in a video he said he got the idea for the short clips on Sesame Street from commercials. Apparently there was a study at the time showing that small children’s attention spans were perfect for commercials so he based the whole show on that concept. At least they weren’t trying to sell us anything. I wish I could still stay home and watch Sesame Street!
posted by Rachel on 9-26-2008 at 7:02 am
I watched all these shows when I was a kid. I don’t have ADD, I work hard for the things I want and that includes cold hard cash. I also had parents who didn’t talk down to me, made me understand that while I AM special so is everyone else in their own way and that doesn’t entitle me to special treatment and made me do chores to earn an allowance. Sure, television can influence anyone, especially young people. But I think the problem hits when television is the only influence.
posted by Jen on 9-26-2008 at 7:53 am
What Jen said.
Blaming Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, whatever, for short attention spans, etc., is just sympomatic of a victim mentality. So many of us our unwilling to take responsibility for our actions and this trend is promoted by all media and is firmly linked to cortporate capitalism.
posted by BassMan on 9-26-2008 at 8:34 am
fraggle rock made me scared to go down tot he basement of my house
posted by Beth on 9-26-2008 at 9:31 am
I think Mr. Rogers is more of an example of the problem, not the cause. The problem I have seen, as a child of baby boomers, is that their entire parenting idea revolves around giving their kids the things they never had as kids. Well that’s great, but now they have realized too late that it just produced a generation of young adults who do not take any personal responsibility and expect everything to be handed to them. People my age drive me crazy!!
posted by Kim on 9-26-2008 at 9:39 am
I watched darn near every kids show and cartoon out there. I learned a little [both good and bad] from them all. But like they say in school “The teacher is a road map, the parents are the drivers.”
posted by Bugs on 9-26-2008 at 11:17 am
LOL. Mr. Rogers made me interested in the world around me with all his field trips, and inspired me to try things that were new to me. Sesame Street aided my pre-reading experience by making letters and sounds memorable.
If you go and find the post on here about the passing of Mr. Rogers, you will see hundreds of comments regarding the positive effects Mr. Rogers had on children from many decades. Someone should send that link to that LSU professor.
posted by Lelah on 9-26-2008 at 2:28 pm
I blame Elmo for the poor test scores of today. That little muppet has led to a dumbing-down of Sesame Street and many other shows followed suit.
posted by Kosmo on 9-26-2008 at 3:07 pm
My oldest wouldn’t to his ABC’s for me, but he would for Sesame Street
I notice no one is complaining about Captain Kangaroo, but he was right there with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street (who had black people on during segregation, and taught many Southern children to not hate because of color).
Personally, I think our shows were better then stuff like the Teletubby crap on now. I always referred to them as stoned babies and refused to let my kids watch it.
posted by Lorelei on 9-27-2008 at 1:56 am