1259 Sesame Streetwise

Some conservatives once protested that children’s TV was a commie plot. Especially those programs for kids that were foisting liberal values like tolerance, acceptance and consensus-building on our youth.
Tolerance may be great on Sesame Street, but the real world of bully-ridden playgrounds calls for tougher techniques. Not Sesame Street but Sesame Streetwise.
When the conservatives said TV was damaging our youth they weren’t that far wrong. A recent study by researchers in Montreal and Michigan, conducted on toddlers to ten-year-olds, confirmed it.
The researchers first observed TV habits of 2 1/2 year-olds, then again when they were 4 ½, then again when they were 10. Every hour, beyond the average 9 hours a week, the kids spent in additional TV watching made them dumber. If by dumber you mean 7 percent less engaged in class and 6 percent worse at math.
If affected their physical skills too. They exercised less, had higher body fat, and snacked more. Talk about cookie monsters.
Social skills were also challenged. They were 10 percent more likely to be bullied. Apparently, no one wanted to tickle kids who emulated Elmo. They just wanted to beat the stuffing out of him.
The head researcher concluded that this was “a compelling public health argument against excessive TV viewing in early childhood. Even when kids watch ‘educational’ programs, they are learning to be just a passive receptacle.”
It sounds to me like Sesame Street needs to reinvent itself for the real world. A Grand Theft Auto-like interactive video game perhaps, where a non-snack food eating kid wipes out playground bullies and throws the Cookie Monster into Grouchy Oscar’s trashcan.
Or better yet, a new Sesame Street Wii—“Exercise Me Elmo!”
Burn those kiddie calories when you shake like a puppet!
America, ya gotta love it.