The roots of the word television are ancient Greek τῆλε/tele, ‘far’ and Latin visio, ‘sight’. And ever since it arrived in American living rooms in the 1940s, producers have aspired to somehow shrink the distance between programming and audience. Now the digital age has created a gateway to connect with audiences anytime, anywhere and to provide an endless array of passive and active engagement with media.
Ellen Galinsky—chief scientific officer at Bezos Family Foundation and author of the bestselling Mind in the Making—who worked with him, writes in Early Learning Nation, “Fred was a seeker of truth and it’s because of this impassioned seeking that we, or at least I, continue to turn to him.”
The show went off the air in 2001, and Fred Rogers died in 2003, but his kind spirit lives on in a well-received documentary, a feature film starring Tom Hanks and the PBS Kids series Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
“But none of this tech power will make our children’s lives better unless it is deployed to strengthen the power of human relationships. The legacy of pioneers such as Sesame Street, Fred Rogers and Nickelodeon is that they all promoted a kinder citizenry and a shared future for all children. That’s needed now more than ever.” — Michael Levine, Senior Vice President of Learning and Impact, Noggin
For parents of young children concerned about screen time, ubiquitous media has long created tension, but the past year has highlighted the potential of high-quality digital programming to keep kids, and their parents, learning and connected even while they’re stuck at home.
“Just as stone tools were the technological breakthrough of early humans, today’s kids have digital platforms to access the worlds’ information at their fingertips!” says Michael H. Levine, Ph.D., senior vice president of Learning and Impact for Noggin, Nickelodeon’s early learning service. “These now ubiquitous means of communication and learning weren’t even contemplated three decades ago.”
This whirlwind history traces significant advances in the quest to make educational children’s television and new forms of media an engaging experience—instead of one where the viewers are merely passive recipients.
- The precursors: seeing yourself in the classroom. From the very beginning of the medium, children have been hooked and parents have been concerned: Is my child watching too much? Is it harmful? Could it maybe be a bit beneficial (because I have laundry to fold)?
- The man with the cardigan sweater: seeing into your heart. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, featuring the soft-spoken and infinitely patient Fred Rogers, premiered in 1968. It may have seemed like just another children’s series at the time, with the host interacting with puppets and singing songs, but over time it has come to be appreciated as an almost transcendent vehicle for children to get in touch with their emotions.
- Big Bird & friends: seeing people like you on screen. Sesame Street, which premiered in 1969, the same year we landed on the moon, represented a “giant leap” for children’s television. Creators Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett adhered to a rigorous curriculum instead of selecting lessons based on what felt right.
👉 Read more: Molly of Denali’s Native Smarts
- Home video and the Internet: seeing what you want, when you want. While innovations in content have continued since Sesame Street, the big story of the past few decades is the technological innovations that seem to hand control to children and their adults.
- Seeing people like you in history. For Levine and his colleagues at Noggin, the next stage for young audiences has arisen in response to both the COVID-19 pandemic, which is keeping families at home; and the national reckoning with the legacy of racism.
Early Learning Nation columnist Mark Swartz writes for and about nonprofit organizations. Author of the children's books Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, Lost Flamingo, Magpie Bridge and The Giant of the Flood as well as a few novels, he lives in Takoma Park, MD, with his wife and two children.