Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street facts for kids
Book cover
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| Author | Gerald S. Lesser |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Vintage Books |
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Publication date
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1974 |
| Media type | Mass-market paperback |
| Pages | 291 |
| ISBN | 978-0-394-48100-5 |
| OCLC | 1289005 |
| 791.457 | |
| LC Class | PN1992.77.S43 L4 |
Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street is a non-fiction book from 1974. It was written by Gerald S. Lesser. In this book, Lesser explains how the famous TV show Sesame Street was made. He also talks about the ideas behind the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), which created the show.
Gerald Lesser was a professor at Harvard University. He studied how a child's background affected their learning in school. He was one of the first experts in the U.S. to research how watching television influenced children. At first, he wasn't sure if TV could be a good teaching tool. But he later became the main advisor for the CTW. He was also the first educational director for Sesame Street.
Lesser wrote this book early in Sesame Street's history. He wanted to show how well the show was working. He also wanted to explain what the writers, researchers, and producers were trying to do. The book also answered some of the criticisms about Sesame Street.
The book has four main parts: "A Proposal", "Planning", "Broadcasting", and "Lessons from Sesame Street". It also includes a preface and an epilogue by Lesser. The book has a foreword by Sesame Street co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney. There is also an introduction by co-creator Lloyd Morrisett. You can find fun cartoons by children's author Maurice Sendak throughout the book. Lesser shares the story of how Sesame Street began and his role in it. He also describes all the research that went into making the show.
Contents
How Sesame Street Began
Gerald S. Lesser was a professor at Harvard University. He taught about Education and Child Development. He looked at how a child's family background and culture affected their success in school. He was a pioneer in studying how TV affected kids.
In 1968, Lloyd Morrisett, a co-creator of Sesame Street, asked Lesser for help. Morrisett and producer Joan Ganz Cooney were developing a new children's show. Lesser had met Morrisett when they were students at Yale University.
Lesser was doubtful that TV could be a good way to teach. But he eventually became the main advisor for the Children's Television Workshop (CTW). This group was made to create and research Sesame Street. Lesser also became the show's first educational director. He was also unsure about Cooney leading the CTW at first. But Cooney later said she was very proud to work with him.
Planning the Show's Lessons
In the summer of 1968, Lesser led several planning meetings in Boston. These meetings brought together education experts, writers, and producers. Their goal was to decide what school-ready skills Sesame Street should teach. Lesser was very good at encouraging teamwork during these meetings. Some disagreements happened among the educators, but Lesser made everyone feel important. He made sure their ideas were heard and used.
These meetings also taught the show's producers and writers a lot. They learned about child development and how young children learn. Lesser understood that researchers and producers needed to work closely. This helped bring ideas about child development into the show's creation.
The CTW Model for Learning
As the head of research for Sesame Street, Lesser created what he called "the CTW model". This model had key ideas about how children learn from TV. It also focused on making high-quality shows. And it aimed to build a team where everyone trusted each other.
Before each episode aired, researchers tested its content in preschools. After episodes were broadcast, they measured the show's learning goals. This helped them see how well the show was working.
Lesser wrote Children and Television in 1974. He wanted to explain the CTW model and how effective it was. He also wanted to describe what the show's creators were trying to achieve. The book also responded to criticisms of Sesame Street. Lesser explained the show's logic, its lessons, and its teaching methods. His book was seen as a strong explanation of the CTW's ideas. It also told the story of how the show was made.
What the Book is About
Children and Television has four main parts: "A Proposal", "Planning", "Broadcasting", and "Lessons from Sesame Street". It also has a preface and an epilogue by Lesser. There's a foreword by Joan Ganz Cooney and an introduction by Lloyd Morrisett. The book also features cartoons by Maurice Sendak, who attended the 1968 planning meetings.
Lesser starts his book by explaining how Sesame Street began. He talks about his own work studying child development. He looked at how these ideas could help teach children. Since 1961, he had been studying how kids reacted to TV. He wanted to know if TV could be used to teach them. In 1966, Cooney and Morrisett asked him to help create the show's learning goals. He agreed, even though he had doubts about TV as a teaching tool.
Who Sesame Street Was For
Sesame Street was made for any child who wanted to watch it. But Lesser says the creators especially wanted to reach children from poorer families. He wrote, "If the series did not work for poor children, the entire project would fail." He also pointed out problems with the American public school system. He felt schools failed to educate children because they didn't have clear goals. When he wrote the book, most American children didn't go to preschool. The first two chapters of the book explain why creating an educational TV show like Sesame Street was so important. They especially focus on its target audience.
"Grownups never seem to understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them".
Gerald Lesser used this quote to begin the second section of Children and Television. He started many of his sections and chapters with interesting quotes.
Planning the Show's Production
In the "Planning" section, Lesser describes how many of the cast and crew were hired. This included executive producer David Connell, producer Sam Gibbon, head writer Jon Stone, and producer/writer Matt Robinson. It also included Jim Henson, composer Joe Raposo, and actors Loretta Long, Bob McGrath, and Will Lee. Lesser also talks about hiring head researcher Edward L. Palmer and the community outreach team. The show's producers spent 18 months planning, which was a very long time for a children's TV show back then. Lesser describes the detailed curriculum meetings held at Harvard University and in New York City in 1968.
These chapters explain the main ideas behind Sesame Street. The creators believed that learning could be fun and happen without trying. They also decided that even though Sesame Street was set in a city, they would avoid showing too much negativity. Lesser states that "Sesame Street became a sweet show, and its staff maintains that there is nothing wrong in that."
The researchers created a "Writer's Notebook" for the show's writers. This helped connect the learning goals with the scripts. Lesser explains how the show used music, humor (especially slapstick humor), and animation to teach. He stresses how important characters, both human and Muppet, were to keep children interested. According to Lesser, Sesame Street combined Muppets, live actors, animation, and live-action films to hold kids' attention.
Studying Young Viewers
Before Sesame Street, no one really studied how children reacted to educational TV. This was the first time kids' reactions were used to make a show better. Lesser reports that about 10-15% of the CTW's first two-year budget (which was $8 million) was spent on research. He explains the goals for the research done before the show aired. The CTW wanted to know if watching the show made a difference. They especially wanted to compare the show's effect on children from different family backgrounds. They also looked at if where and how kids watched affected how much they learned.
Lesser states, "This became the first time in television's 25-year history that child-watching was systematically applied over a sustained period to the design of a televised series for children." He describes new methods researcher Edward Palmer created. For example, the "distractor" method used a slide projector next to the TV. Slides changed every eight seconds. Researchers recorded when children looked away from the TV to the projector. This data helped them remove parts of the show that didn't keep kids' attention. Lesser says, "This was the first time in television's history that the children themselves would be listened to with care as a television series for them was designed and broadcast."
Broadcasting and Feedback
Lesser's "Broadcasting" section explains how the show got its name. He says, "...We were forced to select the name we all liked the least." Sesame Street first aired on November 10, 1969. It received many good reviews. But there were also some negative comments and criticisms. Lesser talks about these in detail in the chapter called "Criticism." He includes criticisms from about thirty different groups and people. He shows the main ideas and range of their arguments.
Lesser also describes the research on the long-term effects of Sesame Street. By the middle of its first season, three to four million people were watching the show. Lesser breaks down who was watching. He says the show's popularity stayed high. Testing showed positive changes in children after just three weeks of the first season. They found that children who watched the show more often learned more.
The last section of Lesser's book, "Lessons from Sesame Street," sums up what the creators wanted to achieve. Lesser states, "Here is Sesame Street's main lesson: It deliberately uses television to teach without hiding its educational intentions and yet it attracts a large and devoted audience of young children from all parts of the country."
Images for kids
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Book cover
