University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1973 Sesame Street : a space age approach to education for space age children. Loretta. Long University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Long, Loretta., "Sesame Street : a space age approach to education for space age children." (1973). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2814. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2814 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © 1974 LORETTA MOORE LONG ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SESAME STREET: A SPACE AGE APPROACH TO EDUCATION FOR SPACE AGE CHILDREN A Dissertation Presented By LORETTA MOORE LONG Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION MAJOR SUBJECT: Education August 1973 StlSAME STREET: A SPACE AGE APPROACH TO EDUCATION FOR SPACE AGE CHILDREN A Dissertation LORETTA MOORE LONG Approved as to Style and Content: Prof. Nat Rutstein, Chairman Dr. Bob Suzuki, Member Dwight W. Allen, Dean August 1973 DEDICATED To The "Sesame Seeds" The Children Who Love So Totally ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I'd like to thank my committee tor their support, love and willingness to be helpful to me throughout this project. Nat Rutstein, Atron Gentry and Bob Suzuki, were very helpful and supportive; Norma Jean Anderson's special kind of guidance could not be duplicated by anyone else; for in my mind she's my foster mother. I must also thank the following people who went out of their way to be helpful just because I said -- Help! — Cleo Abraham Tony Best Ed Carpenter Jim Comer Evelyn Davis Lu Horne Joyce Johnson Peter Nolan Chet Pierce Vivian Riley For the energy and intelligence with which they typed my work I’d like to thank Angela Aguiar, Debbie Randolph, and especially Pauline Ashby, who "hung in" until the end. Finally, I thank God for my parents, Verle and Marjorie Moore, upon whose shoulders I stood to reach my present educational height, my husband the famous Peter Long who believed I could do it, and all of those people who "Zapped" me with so much love and support that I couldn't fail. v SESAME STREET: A SPACE AGE APPROACH TO EDUCATION FOR SPACE AGE CHILDREN (August 1973) LORETTA MOORE LONG B. A. - Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Directed by : Professor Nat Rutstein ABSTRACT An incalculable waste of human potential occurs because educators do not educate children soon enough or with the most modern technology. In addition, all children are not educated equally. The Black and minority and inner city children, due to their different environments and low socio-economic class, start school behind their White counterparts and rapidly fall further behind, their self respect and ambition shattered by school norms totally alien to their backgrounds. This dissertation examines the television program ’’Sesame Street” as a model for educating children sooner and with a modern technology, and for combatting the educational racism that destroys Black and minority children. It first examines three problems: when do children start learning? What shape should education take to prepare children for the accelerating change and explosive technological growth of the 21st Century? Why should educators vi intervene a in child’s environment, particularly the inner city environment, to enrich it and give the child ’’survival skills” for what he will face in school? It then examines the success of ’’Sesame Street” in teaching a broad spectrum of children the simple cognitive skills they need for school. But because knowledge of simple cognitive skills will not completely eradicate the substantial differences between low socio-economic class children and higher socio-economic class children, ’’Sesame Street” has incorporated a "hidden curriculum” that is focused on affective learning. It is the hidden curriculum that seeks to bolster the Black and minority child's self respect and to portray the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural world into which both majority and minority child are growing. The conscious devices —an inner city neighborhood, an integrated cast, an equal role for all children in solving problems —used to achieve this goal are discussed. Because affective learning is generally untestable, concrete responses and examples of effectiveness are given. The dissertation then reports on the activities of the Children's Television Workshop’s Community Education Division. These activities are reported to the show how the program is brought to those children who need it most and how effect of the program of children is optimized. It then proposes a "Sesame "Sesame Street Mothers' Program, which would train mothers on how best to use discussed as Street. " Specific program features and their rationale are suggestions on how to take the mystique out of teaching a child. vii ! TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .... ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF TABLES . CHAPTER Page I INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Study Objectives of the Study Organization of the Study II KINDERGARTEN—TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE 12 Young Children Can Learn What Shape for Education The Space Age Child TV Babies Why Must Educators Intervene III HOW SESAME STREET ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT EDUCATIONAL RACISM. 56 It Works The Measurement Instrument and Analysis Hidden Curriculum Raising Self Image Racial Tolerance Teachers’ Attitudes The Role of Love on Sesame Street Summary viii CHAPTER Page IV THE COMMUNITY EDUCATION DIVISION 95 CED's Activities in Urban Centers CED's Activities in Appalachia Delonwisco Education Project Jackson, Mississippi Project San Antonio Project New York Project CED's Other Activities Summary V SESAME STREET MOTHERS' SHOW. 112 Introduction Elements of the Show Length Time of Broadcast General Structure Setting Experts Panel of Mothers Short Dramatizations Interviews and Documentary Clips Segments Dealing with the Day's Show Other Features Funding Summary 130 FOOTNOTES . 139 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 147 APPENDICES. ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page I Number of Hours Viewed Per Week By Age 24 II Characteristics of the Sample 26 III Favorite Program Categories 28 IV Levels of Identification for Characters 29 V Percentage of Children Not in School 52 VI Excerpt from Attention Levels of Segments of Show #167 71 VII Characterizations of Blacks in Drama 78 x " CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The writer is an ex-teacher who is currently a television actress-singer, who plays a nurse on the popular children's show, "Sesame Street. Does that sound confusing? Sometimes it's even confusing to me, especially when 1 am asked if I'm an actress or an educator. One thing I am not confused about is the fact that preschool children of today are not only brighter than their parents were at a comparable age, but also have different educational needs. They need to be educated sooner and in a different manner than any prior generation. The children today in the three-to-five year old age group must be educated to be more creative and flexible than ever before simply because of the demands of the space age into which they were born. We, as educators, must take the initiative in finding methods to up- grade our educational techniques to keep education in step with the vast technological advances of other fields. There is no reason why the same technology that puts men on the moon cannot be utilized to teach Johnny to read. It is imperative that the educators of today equip these citizens of the 21st Century for their future, which may well include space travel, developing 2 totally new lifestyles, and working in occupations that we have not even envisioned. These babies of ours are growing up in a society which is advancing so rapidly technologically that they may have to be trained and retrained several times in their lives in order to remain employable. Outmoded educational techniques must be thrown out and replaced by educational practices that will better prepare the children to become creative, flexible and humanistic adults, equipped to solve some of the tremendous problems we are leaving to them. Problems such as drug addiction, over- population and racial strife can be solved only by the clear-thinking, unbiased and creative adults that our children can become if we educate them properly. Today’s toddlers must be equipped to find creative alternatives to these problems and many others not yet envisioned. They will have to do so in the shortest span of time and under the most severe kinds of pressure. Statement of the Problem The problem is twofold in nature: first, how to utilize modern technology to upgrade the education of children, beginning at an early age, in highly order to equip them for their future roles as responsible adults in the complex and sophisticated society of the 21st Century; and secondly, how to one of the methods by fight racism in our society by attempting to break down as stated by Stokely Carmichael and which it perpetuates itself. Racism, Charles V. Hamilton, is: 3 • • • both overt and covert. It takes two closely related forms: Individual whites acting against individual blacks, and acts by the total white community against the black community. We call these individual racism and institutional racism. The first consists of overt acts by individuals, which cause death, injury or violent destruction of property. This type can be reached by television cameras; it can frequently be observed in the process of commission. The second type is less overt, far more subtle, less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing the acts.