Now, did you notice anything? Kids? Ok. A big yellow 7 year old bird? Good! Notice anything else? Were the kids outside?! AND they were PLAYING!!!! Keep this in mind as I continue to rant…

Yesterday, Christina Warren of Mashable.com wrote a piece praising Sesame Street and their Elmo iPhone app. Take a look:

Christina begins her article by saying:

Sesame Street is one of my favorite brands, not just because Grover is amazing, but because over the last 40 years, it has never been afraid of innovating and embracing new technologies.

To which I thought, absolutely! A quick search on my blog for ‘Sesame Street’ will reveal my love for all things Sesame Street as well! Calli and I have spent countless hours on the laptop watching and playing with our Sesame Street friends on sesamestreet.org! Even my very first column for Dad-Blogs was about Sesame Workshop‘s panwapa.com. (Feel free to visit the column here: Can You Tell Me How To Get To Panwapa Island?) So yes, I agree that Sesame Street is worth buying in to.

She goes on to talk about the app, and then this statement caught my eye:

On my running route, I see children in their strollers playing on iPhone or iPod touch devices. It’s amazing.

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The squeal of screeching tires sounded in my head and I did a spit-take. WHAT?! ‘Come on kids, let’s go to the park. You can play on my iPhone!’?

When I first saw that, I wanted to rant about the evils of technology and how Sesame Street shouldn’t influence kids to sit around playing with it. But then it hit me. Sesame Street is just taking advantage of how we as parents utilize technology in order to get their brand out in front of as many young eyeballs as possible. And it’s still a good brand. Sesame Workshop does a lot for our kids, and I would never discourage anyone from participating in that.

But iPhones in strollers?! Parents, please. What are you doing to your kids?

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. I can’t rail against technology as I type my blog in to my laptop while I listen to Pandora and munch on my freshly microwaved breakfast. I’ve been known to hand my Blackjack II to my kid with a cartoon or game on. But I do that while we’re waiting at the doctor’s office or the DMV. And if we are at the doctor’s office, I look for toys. The dirtier the better. Builds up the immune system with antibodies. But I digress.

When at the park, dear parents, what ever happened to ‘Look, Junior, isn’t that a cute puppy?’ or ‘My, what a tall tree that is!’ If a kid is dexterous enough to navigate an iPhone app, I’m willing to bet that he/she is able to walk and explore the world around them. Why would you hamper that?

What do you think? Am I just flying off the deep end? Has my year plus of Daddy Blogging finally given me a self-righteous need to judge all other parents and find them inferior? How do you utilize technology in your parenting?

Calli slides to the future with Abby Cadabby.

I learned my ABC’s in my PJ’s. I would play games with a giant bird, swing by Hooper’s store for a soda, and try to avoid the grouch on the corner, but there was always something charming about him as well. I was watching Sesame Street.

I’m sure you have similar memories. Our kids will too. While I laughed at Ernie tormenting Bert, or watched as Kermit the Frog gave another Sesame Street News Flash from the planet Kuzbain or a familiar fairy tale, I was also learning. Today, my daughter loves Elmo and Abby Cadabby. The cast of colorful characters may change, but the wordly themes of cultural understanding and acceptance (While learning ABC’s and 123′s) never changes. Sesame Street is just as integral to my children’s lives as it was to mine.

I recieved a letter recently that made me a little sad. Sesame Street was asking me for money.

My first knee jerk reaction before reading the letter thoroughly was that I’ve got shelves of Elmo DVDs and toys and books for my child, you’ve gotten enough money from me!

Then I read the opening:

Dear Friend,

I want to share with you a part of a letter written to Sesame Street from a young viewer in South Africa:

“My friend is Nomfundo … I feel sad because she is HIV-positive. Other children, they don’t play with her. My friend is still my friend and I love her.

Every day I watch Takalani Sesame with my friend. Moshe and Kami on Takalani Sesame, they care about people who are HIV-positive…”

A few years ago, I had watched a documentary called ‘The World According To Sesame Street‘. The film focused on Sesame Street’s international efforts, and introduced me to the wonderful character of Kami.

Kami is an HIV-positive muppet. She is five years old. HIV/AIDS now afflicts more than one in nine South Africans. Kami teaches acceptance of those who are afflicted. Just watching her in the documentary made my heart go out to those people. I can’t imagine the effect she has on the people who live there, or the children who get to watch her every day.

Another story in the letter caught my eye:

Galli Galli Sim Sim

One of our newest international co-productions is in India, a country that suffers from widespread poverty. In rural areas especially, educational opportunities are limited … if they exist at all.

One out of every six children in the world lives in India. A staggering two out of three of these Indian children (between the ages of 2 and 6) lack access to early childhood care and education.

These are just two examples of the more than 140 variations of Sesame Street in over 140 countries and territories worldwide.

The reason that Sherrie Rollins Westin of Sesame Workshop sent out the letter, and the reason that I feel compelled to post this blog entry, is that the international operations of Sesame Street need help funding their efforts.

Back to the letter:

Revenue from the sale of Workshop merchandise helps cover some of these costs for our U.S. projects. But there are limited licensing and merchandising opportunities in underserved regions of the world that most need what we can provide.

With corporations and foundations scaling back their funding, and limited government budgets, Sesame Workshop is turning more and more to good people like you to bring our programs to life.

Doing a little research of my own, I discovered that there’s a new Sesame Street in Northern Ireland called ‘Sesame Tree‘, which invites children to send in questions, and then two Muppet characters, Potto and Hilda, set out to find the answers.

In Israel, children watch Rechov Sumsum, which teaches respect and understanding to children in an area of growing conflict and diversity. Palestine has their own version of Sesame Street entitled Shara’a Simsim. By providing a window into other cultures, these programs are helping to quiet the fears that the children may have.

I feel that Sesame Street is such an integral part of our lives because I know that I personally was changed by it. One example of this in my life is that the American Sesame Street features a character named Luis (pronounced Lou-ees). I now work in an environment of very diverse cultures, but one of my co-workers is named Luis! I am careful to pronounce it correctly, largely due to my Sesame Street upbringing. It rankles me when I hear someone else call him ‘Louis’.  This may seem like a minor detail, but it is important to me that I respect other cultures and I go out of my way to make sure that I at least pronounce people’s names right! For me, that’s just a respectful thing to do. I thank Sesame Street for instilling those values in me.

On March 11, Variety reported that the American operation of Sesame Street had to layoff 20% of its workers. If the economic downturn has hit Sesame Street here in America, where we are free to buy whatever they can think to put Sesame Street characters on, imagine how things are going in the more underserved countries that I just mentioned.

If I’ve succeeded in touching your heart or you have your own story of how Sesame Street has touched your life, please, go to the Sesame Street donations page and give what you can. I for one feel that our future as a world community depends on the continuation of the ‘longest street in the world’: Sesame Street.

Would your childhood have been the same without these guys? Will your childrens'?