Friday, October 10, 2008
Muppet Diplomacy
Carnegie Mellon University: "This year's International Festival will give the Carnegie Mellon community a chance to revisit the lessons of their youth through 'Muppet Diplomacy: How Sesame Street is Changing Our World' — a keynote by Gary Knell, president and CEO of the Sesame Workshop."
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2 comments:
i went to this lecture today and it was absolutely amazing! Mr. Knell talked about how Sesame Street talked about issues no one else wanted to talk about. In south africa, no one would go there during the appartheid, but Sesame St. got a program running that taught pre-schoolers to ignore color differences. Their main message is we are all earthlings. What I found very interesting was how they tailor the show to fit the needs of the region. In Zimbabwe, they have a muppet who is HIV+ and talk about the issues she faces. They make sure kids know that you can't get HIV from touching someone and being their friend. It was a very cool thing.
It was also interesting to note that kids who watched sesame street in preschool are statistically prone to do significantly better in High School than those who didn't. I wonder how far into life this goes...
Oh no! I'm so sorry I missed this. It sounds amazing, especially in the discussion of political issues Seasame Street chooses to face. Such a wonderful program. I was especially eager to go because I saw the Jim Hensen exhibit at the Smithsonian this summer; I've been feeling nostalgic for the muppets ever since.
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