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I grew up on Sesame Street, I loved it back when cookie monster ate cookies therefore his name. Ernie and Bert did not have parents that we could see, Oscar the grouch was grouchy. Life lessons were real there were consequences for behaving certain ways, not everyone was great at everything and it was okay to lose or get your feelings hurt, or not picked for a team. Not everyone liked you, you did not like everyone and there was no political correctness. There were bullies in schools, children got in trouble and kids learned to work out their own issues, what a concept. There were no lawsuits or fast pat answers, children actually showed respect for adults, and yes kids did know who their neighbors were went to their homes for milk and cookies, and got spanked when they misbehaved. The view of the world then was it takes a village to raise a child. Children felt safe because the rules were consistent at home and outside, where dirt did not kill you and exercise was fun as was climbing trees and being different was celebrated. Sesame Street was a safe place to explore different cultures and places as well as learning how to count and your colors and to match sizes , shapes and things.

Roosevelt Franklin I will admit was a bit out there but i learned that some people are different from me and to accept them, he was funny and always in trouble, he attended an inner city school and he looked and behaved as some of them did , the purpose of sesame street was to have a show that all children could relate too, not just middle income suburban children, and it worked until some parents decided that they did not want their children to be exposed to other worlds, it was unhealthy for their children to see a puppet eating cookies all the time, it was not nice for Oscar to be grouchy teach kids bad habits. Here is a clue IT IS NOT UP TO A TV SHOW TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN HOW TO BEHAVE, OR TO INFLUENCE THEIR EATING HABITS, THAT IS WHAT PARENTS ARE FOR.

Stop trying to pass off bad parenting skills on innate objects and look at yourself and ask how can I become a better parent? How can i teach my child about the "real world" the good , the bad, the ugly? How do I teach my child that people and cultures are different and to appreciate those differences and inculcate them into our lives?

Children are not born with intolerance or prejudice that is a parents doing. Only adults see evil in everything and its colored by the bias of their own lives. You are not protecting your child when you bash shows like Sesame Street you are just trying to push your views of the world on others. There is much children can learn about the world from the earlier seasons of sesame street its a shame though we have become so politically correct that we have sucked all the creativity of color out of life and only left the bitter brittle shell of what once was.

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