Sesame Street Will Help Kids Face the Recession
Al Roker and Deborah Roberts will join Elmo in talking to kids about these tough economic times. Photo by Gil Vaknin from sesameworkshop.org
In a previous blog post, ‘We’ve Heard the Talk of Wall Street and Main Street, But Who’ll Help Sesame Street?’ I talked about how the Sesame Workshop was laying off some of it’s staff as a result of these dismal economic times. Wednesday night, the Street takes to Prime-Time to help children understand what parents already know.
In an interview on NPR‘s Marketplace, producer Dr. Jeanette Betancort had this to say, ‘It deals with job loss, as well as tight times, as well as when you lose a home due to economic situations. What we’re hoping that families take away from this is how to talk to children about what is happening and also explaining how these tough times are affecting the entire family.’
Sesame Street is not one to shy away from difficult subjects that even as a parent it’s sometimes hard to discuss. Recently, the federal government teamed up with Sesame Street to create public service announcements to teach children about health and hygiene. This is to try to combat a resurgence of swine flu. I remember mourning the loss of Mr. Hooper right alongside Big Bird. When the actor who played him, Will Lee, passed away, the writers faced the issue head on, rather than just telling kids that he ‘went away’.
So using Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Gang to explain the recession makes perfect sense. Not only will it help us parents be able to talk about it with our kids, but maybe it’ll shed a light on how this is affecting us as well.
The Sesame Street primetime special, entitled ‘Families Stand Together’ will air Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 8Pm ET. Check your local listings. You can see previews of the special here. To read the project overview, click here.
If you would like to hear the entire Marketplace interview or read the transcript, you can find that here.
To donate to the Sesame Workshop and all the wonderful things that they do here and around the world, please click here.
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Tags: Al Roker, Big Bird, Children, Deborah Roberts, Elmo, Hooper, recession, SesameStreet, tough times, Will Lee
Sesame Street rocked when I was a child and it rocks now for Bea. Thank you for these posts and highlighting how important this show is for families.
Kevin Grossman´s last blog ..Multitasking: a liberal collective of misfiring synapses jet skiing through a hurricane