Has Sesame become less educational?

[Docnzhoss]

One of the things I've always loved was that Sesame didn't condescend to kids. It was a matter of fact fun with a foundation of education. Now a days it seems like it talks down to kids, and tries to slip information in amoungst the zaniness from time to time.

I agree with you Doc, I can't stand the potty humor of tv and won't let my kids watch it. I'm not saying that cartoons aren't appropriate entertainment for adults, but air during adult viewing hours on adult stations. Fart jokes are not funny, especially when coming out of a 3 year olds mouth.

Well said. I agree totally with both points. Potty humor is totally unnecessarry. Did Bugs Bunny ever bend over and let one slip in Elmer Fudd's face? I guess I'm not sure when quality of television slipped. Did it begin with Beavis and Butthead? I think Ren and Stimpy were just a bit before B&B, so is Nickelodeon (also responsible for Spongebob)to blame? Or perhaps a show I often credit for being intelligent and witty, The Simpsons, are at fault for giving us the underachieving Bart Simpson. I know The Simpsons sometimes turn to naked behinds or mild violence to get a laugh, and I know The Simpsons were a huge hit with me and my classmates when they first came on the air (I was in fifth grade, so 9 to 10 years old). Those were impressionable times and as marketable as the Simpsons were even then, maybe they were the ones who got the ball rolling downhill. I hate to point a finger at the show I love so much (The Simpsons are my favorite show on the air), but I'm trying to figure out how it all began (unfortunately, at the expense of anyone who reads this...sorry).

Okay, that is a fourth rant and I fear that sooner or later, I'll hit a nerve with someone and cause a problem, so I will stop here and offer only monosyllabic responses from here on out. Bye-bye! (Whoops!) Bye!

 

[maxdrive]

i think seseme street did downgrade they use to have two letters of the day now they onyl have one they cut out mos tthe educational stuff for elmos world i like elmo but he realy odnt teach thing like when he did reading he didnt teach anyhtign really about reading jsut talked about it. I hope seseme street does go back to its roots.

 

[Censored]

Sesame Street has become less everything than it used to be.

 

[timrikthegorf]

I was watching Big Bird's Birthday from 91 (I think) and noticed that there is a lot more to learn when all those little skits are in the show like they use to be. One song was about world peace, another about imagination, another about not giving up, another about numbers. I mean, now it's just one theme for the entire show. Maybe kids are learning less from it.

 

[maxdrive]

i love the not givieng up one

its a long hard road but im going to get there

the enviromete one about water and how every lviieng thing uses it

and the feelings song about how every body crys

i think sesame street downgraded because of allt he new shows that are popular that dont teach anyhting like teletubbies and boobah both are shows about nothing.

 

[timrikthegorf]

I don't even know what the heck teletubbies are. It's just a bunch of weird colorful things doing nothing at all. It's mind numbing. How can kids sit through that? It has to be some kind of hypnotic thing and thek ids just sit there whille their parents drink or something.

 

[maxdrive]

same thing with boobah its nothinging at all just a bunch of farting round things who make noise how can a show like that be on pbs wha tis happening to pbs they did bring back zoom id like to see them bring back other great educational shows like square one and 321 contact

 

[Docnzhoss]

I don't even know what the heck teletubbies are. It's just a bunch of weird colorful things doing nothing at all. It's mind numbing. How can kids sit through that? It has to be some kind of hypnotic thing and thek ids just sit there whille their parents drink or something.

I know I said I wouldn't respond again, but this post made me laugh.

 

[bigbirdfan]

If Seseme gets cancled I will remember my first time watching it

 

[GelflingWaldo]

Hasn't it become much less eucational?

Education techniques have changed over 30 years and educators use new approaches to reach children. Family/home situations have changed. When counting to 40 was done, children also got reinforcement and support outside of sesame street, today when sesame counts to 10 this may be a totally new and difficult principle to some children. The nature of the show has changed to adapt to the children's, educator's, and families' needs. So the show's education factors may not be staring you in the face, many of the things sesame street accomplishes with children are almost non-exsistant to a "grown-up" (such as picking up speach patterns, location/character/object recognision, simple concepts, ect.) since 1969 many advances figuring out how kids learn and changes in how kids are taught have been made, the way the show educates has changed.

Also the audiance for Sesame Street has changed. The children watching the show today are younger than when it first primired. Most (not all, but most) children watching the show are between birth-five years old; whereas in 1970's it was children from ages one or two all the way up to age seven or even eight. But today many children are exposed to Sesame Street from birth, and now with such a large market of youth television programing on TV, children "out grow" shows and phases faster. Many kindergardeners (5-years old) feel they are too old for Sesame Street now, and want to move on to other children programing they feel is "less baby-ish". Not that sesame street is "baby-ish", but to a 5-year old who watched it as a "baby" they want to move on to something new that they feel is more "grown up" (like say Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, Blues Clues, Bear in the Big Blue House, Fraggle Rock...). In another 2-3 years that new show the child takes to is "child-ish" too and they will move on yet again. Beacuase of this Sesame Stree has focused itself on a smaller and younger demographic now, so the show may seem simpler in what it teaches because of this too.