Sesame Street and Learning Today

Last week, I turned on the news to unexpectedly hear a question and jingle that resounded throughout my childhood: "Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?" The report was a sad one. Dr. Gerald Lesser, both a Harvard psychologist who studied how young children learn and a creator of the much beloved show, passed in late September. Although sad, the report continued to celebrate Lesser's genius. Sesame Street began as an experiment to see if underprivileged children could learn through the relatively new medium of television. Dr. Lesser and his colleagues worked from all angles to incorporate learning into each episode. When they realized advertisements fascinated children, they mimicked the structure of such advertisements in the program (I'm sure we all remember Elmo triumphantly proclaiming that 'Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letter B and the number 5!'). Lesser also realized that children needed role models who were not simply happy all the time, and as a consequence created Oscar the Grouch and the endearingly awkward Big Bird.

Because of Lesser's work, millions of children learned through the technology that surrounded them. Kindergarten teachers had to change their curriculum as children came to school already knowing their letters and numbers from Sesame Street. Furthermore (and perhaps most importantly), learning became interactive and fun as strange looking animals and monsters captivated the imaginations of children. I absolutely loved Sesame Street and my mother recently told me that as a little girl I would burst into tears at the conclusion of every episode.

Today, it seems education and learning faces a dilemma similar to Lesser's. Living in this postmodern world, our students engage in multiple new literacies that many educators neglect, if not outright reject, in the classroom. Instead of becoming responsive to these new technological developments, it seems that education chooses to ignore the changing dynamics of society. While I am no expert on utilizing the latest technology, I think educators should at least attempt to adopt the "Sesame Street" mentality and work to incorporate these new cultural mediums in the classroom. Allowing students to work within the technology that shapes their lives could provide numerous opportunities for meaningful learning.

Of course, I cannot begin to tell teachers how to restructure of their classrooms, and I would never advocate abandoning books for iPads or Kindles or whatever they're called (I'm way too attached to my books to ever support that). However, I think with a little creativity we can use new technology to develop the multiple literacies of our students. Maybe with some of these innovations, our students will grow to love the classroom just as much as I loved Sesame Street.

Mackenzie

Here's a link to the original report I saw on Dr. Lesser and Sesame Street:

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/sesame-street-developer-dr-gerald-lesser-dead-age/story?id=11807388