Towards the end of Chapter 13, there is a section on television in preschool education. In particular, the ideas of the creator of Sesame Street and its impact are explored. Spring (2018) mentions in the textbook that “the use of television as a third educator seemed to contradict all the charges that television viewing was a passive and mind-numbing experience” (p. 429). Gerald Lesser, one of the chief advisers to the Children’s Television Workshop, believed that television helped children model their behavior, and educational television programs could prepare children for school (Spring, 2018, pp. 427-429). However, people tend to limit the presence of children in front of screens. Perhaps educational programs can replace preparation for school.
In the 1960s, it was decided to use educational policy to solve the problem of poverty. It was widely believed that early childhood education plays an essential role in developing children’s cognitive skills. In 1969, Sesame Street was released to “reduce the educational deficit experienced by disadvantaged youth based on differences in their preschool environment” (Kearney & Levine, 2019, p. 318). According to the data, the program had both short-term and long-term positive effects (Kearney & Levine, 2019, p. 343). Thus, television became useful in the eyes of the public, and due to its availability, it influenced many children. Without a doubt, educational programs can provide basic knowledge, but they cannot replace preschool education.
The distribution of educational television programs was aimed at compensating for the deficit in kindergarten education. However, research suggests that young children’s learning ability decreases when interacting with video or other two-dimensional media (Barr & Linebarger, 2017, p. 34). Thus, they need a lively interaction and environment for the qualitative development of cognitive abilities. There is evidence that video games improve children’s logical and spatial skills (Gunter & Gunter, 2019, p. 209). This happens only due to the fact that the child can interact with the environment to one degree or another. Children would not be able to acquire the necessary skills, sitting in front of the TV, even watching an educational program. Therefore, the development of television instead of educational infrastructure is ineffective.
References
Barr, R., & Linebarger, D. N. (2017). Media exposure during infancy and early childhood: The effect of content and context on learning and development. Springer.
Gunter, B., & Gunter, J. (2019). Children and television (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Kearney, M. S., & Levine, P. B. (2019). Early childhood education by television: Lessons from Sesame Street. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(1), 318–350.
Spring, J. (2018). The American school: From the puritans to the Trump era (sociocultural, political, and historical studies in education) (10th ed.). Routledge.