Postman wrote: “…We now know that “Sesame Street” encourages children to love school only if school is like “Sesame Street.” Which is to say, we now know that “Sesame Street” undermines what the traditional idea of what schooling represents.”
Sesame Street + Education
Sesame street is one of the longest running children’s educational shows. It first aired in 1969 and is still going strong. But why?
In his TedTalk, Michael Davis explains how Sesame Street educates children and breaks down barriers. He explains the history of the creation of Sesame Street and how it essentially began as an experiment. “The theory was in this experiment that if you could get adults and children to sit together and watch the program, the child would probably learn more, and that supposition proved to be true.” Obviously, this experiment proved successful as Sesame Street is still airing today.
Not only does Sesame Street cover a wide variety of topics/real life situations, it is also viewed as a tool for educating young children (similar to attending a preschool). Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine completed a study titled Early Childhood Education by Television: Lessons from Sesame Street. Their findings showed that children living in places where its broadcast could be more readily received saw a 14 percent drop in their likelihood of being behind in school, this was particularly true among boys, African Americans and children who grow up in disadvantaged areas. Furthermore, “the show accomplished that at a cost of around $5 per child per year (in today’s dollars),” which is insanely cheap.
Let’s Unpack
Although studies support the idea that Sesame Street can be a beneficial educational tool, Postman’s comment seems to say otherwise. He focuses on how Sesame Street “undermines what the traditional idea of schooling represents” and how it is very different from school itself. In a way, this could be correct. Especially if you are comparing K-12 education has a whole to how this TV show teaches kids. However, if we are going to talk about Sesame Street and education, I think it is more important to focus on the age that it is geared towards: preschoolers. Thus in this case, I would say Postman is incorrect.
Alia Wong’s article reviews the main study mentioned earlier and points out the fact that:
“Sesame Street showed kids a different world than the one found in a typical pre-k classroom today. And it was a lot of kids. When it first launched, the show certainly had a broader reach than formal schooling did at the time.”
I think that this quote and idea presented by Wong is on the right track. At the time of its debut, Sesame Street was a great way for children who could not attend preschool to receive some sort of curriculum to prepare them to begin kindergarten. There are many children who were able to not fall behind in school due to having access to this show. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that learners find audio-visual aids to be “the most effective and easy way” learn (Sunder, 2018). We all know that children can be very engaged and that AV aids hold their attention well. This is also still true today.
Obviously, a show filled with puppets and cartoon characters is not what “traditional” schooling is like, but at the preschool age does it matter how children are getting the “curriculum” as long as they are learning?
Mme.Cookie 
Thank you for your review! I do not have a background in ECE but my daughter is of the age that she attends day care and preschool programming; they do have puppets during circle time! I know its not the same but there is obviously some crossover when it comes to transitioning in-person teaching strategies to digital environments.
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Insightful post Brittney. I share your belief that this program was most beneficial for students who did not attend preschool or that came from lower socioeconomic households or neighbourhoods. Music was the secret ingredient used to teach concepts. I think many early years educators took note of the amount of music in an episode of Sesame Street. Kids love music and its encompasses all languages/cultures. It should say something when an old guy like me can still recall and recite many songs from my childhood mornings watching Sesame Street. “Rubber Ducky – yer the one!! You make bath time so much fun…” 🙂 🙂
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As a personal anecdote, I remember when one of the human characters, Mr. Hooper died. At the time the producers of Sesame Street decided it would be best to actually deal with the idea of death. I think it was one of the first times that I ever had a frank conversation with my parents about mortality. Due to this I have a great deal of respect for the writers who were involved.
When my niece was young she would also watch the show and I noticed a bit of a change. The show in the early 1980s was somehow grittier (for lack of a better term). Sesame street looked more like a street in New York circa 1970. It was kind of odd seeing a gentrified Sesame Street. I wonder if this has to do with a shift in the shows demographics, or a reflection of the changes in society, but I felt old sesame street seemed aimed at a broader audience. It reminds me of the digital Matthew effect that was spoken about in last week’s presentation (where technology is benefitting those who are already quite affluent).
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