Jewish World Review July 18, 2002/ 9 Menachem-Av, 5762

Marianne M. Jennings

Marianne M. Jennings
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Reality Muppets


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Long before Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubby, trotted about with a purse, Bert and Ernie bunked together with their falsetto voices and platform shoes even as Big Bird, the token eunuch of the ever-diverse Sesame Street, hovered nearby. PBS's Children's Television Workshop, now Sesame Workshop, has heaped one odd conglomeration of characters upon the toddlers of the nation for 30 years.

Sesame Street is what happens when early childhood educational theorists have an unlimited budget due to sponsorships from corporations such as Sony, Pfizer and Crest that foolishly fund liberal minds. Adults use androgynous puppets to speak condescendingly to children as all one-child parents do, with self-control so contrived that they seem just one juice spill away from a tower and a rifle. For the anti-gun Sesame Street fans, make that a knife or a rope in the tower with schizophrenia. One-child parents fret about their child having sugar. Parents who burst the sanity barrier with 3 children permit their tykes to suck C & H with a straw from a 5-pound sack if it means quiet.

Sonia Manzano's Sesame Workshop Web column on raising children is quintessential childhood development mumbo jumbo, "I'm trying to give my child the best of my parents' lessons in decency and politeness mixed with today's in-your-face assertiveness. . . .My husband and I are raising our daughter Gabriela differently from the way we were raised. We let her feel free to explore, ask questions and make decisions and that's made for some interesting moments... from when, as a preschooler, Gabi insisted on wearing panty hose on her head... to when she decided she no longer wanted to appear on Sesame Street...." Mercy, heaven help this child of a PBS star.

Sesame Street is run by socialists who have infiltrated 20 countries with pledges to meet the needs of children: "such as the critical need in Egypt to bolster girl's education and self-esteem, the need in Russia to prepare children for life in an open society, the need in South Africa for basic preschool preparation, and the need in Israel and the Palestinian Territories to demystify differences among children and foster appreciation and respect for one another." Ten bucks says Arafat is Oscar the Grouch's long-lost cousin. How long before Cookie Monster starts wearing a turban? Big Bird's peace plan triumphs!

But, the PBS types have a new quest. A muppet with AIDS is coming to Sesame Street.. Andy, the AIDS guy? Henrietta, the HIV friend? From a business perspective, why risk a brand name with the taint of communicable disease? Those who hail from la-la land know no fear when it comes to the terminally and contagiously ill. Those of us in the real world grapple with continuing corrections from the Centers for Disease Control on the ways in which the HIV virus is transmitted.

Addressing illness, death, dismemberment, and perhaps suicide bombers for the Palestinian states edition, is nothing new for Sesame Street. Its penchant for doing so is precisely the reason for its banishment from my household. I don't allow The Simpsons either. Bart's smart mouth and Homer's dysfunctional existence are not the stuff of childhood. Childhood needs innocence, a Sound of Music purity.

Lectures on lesions in between math sessions with The Count are an affront to the age of innocence. On their way to discernment, children deserve peace of mind. Why sucker punch children before they turn 5 with Bart, Homer, and HIV? Couldn't we get them through the importance of cleaning their ears before moving onto STDs?

Those who foist this claptrap upon children selfishly seek adulation from television critics for what is, at best, indifference to children's best interests. Children would be better off being told to wear panty hose on their heads to parties.

This insistence on exposure to AIDS is disingenuous. The liberal righteous claim that broaching this subject with a muppet will help children to be sensitive to those suffering from AIDS. What will occur is a rosy introduction to a deadly disease without full information. If the Sesame Workshop addressed diabetes (Cookie Monster develops Type 2!), they would explore causes, treatment, and prevention.

Big Bird explaining to the cherubs that the two causes of AIDS in all but a tiny percentage of cases are sharing drug needles and sexual contact will bring a collective national screech as toddlers again inquire of their soccer moms, "What's oral sex?"

Introducing children to HIV without causal backdrop is irresponsible. Presenting AIDS to toddlers in sanitized fashion, as it were, is reckless indoctrination by television producers who take advantage of a malleable audience.

Parents should boycott Sesame Street, its products, its sponsors, and its propaganda. Folks this stunningly lacking in judgment should be nowhere near children's programs.

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JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Send your comments by clicking here.

Up

07/09/02: We're all going to die, live with it
07/02/02: From the eye of the storm
06/27/02: Nick not right
06/20/02: Behind the music
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© 2002, Marianne M. Jennings