The Sesame Street Sociology

The Sesame Street Studies “In the late 1960s, a television producer named Joan Ganz Cooney set out to start an epidemic. Her targets were three-, four-, and five-year-olds. Her agent of infection was television, and the “virus” she wanted to spread was literacy” (Gladwell 89). The Tipping Point is a book on the study of epidemics- including mental epidemics and trends. Sesame Street, still one of the most iconic shows to date, is an epidemic; the splurge of knowledge that appeared in children after it began to air is undeniable. The show started production in New York in 1968. Shows for children such as Sesame Street support children in school and throughout life by teaching them memorable lessons from helpful muppets. Nevertheless, how and

Regardless, it was greenlit as an interesting idea. Every skit in the beginnings of Sesame Street were tested on kids to see how and when they were paying attention. Consider the study addressed in The Tipping Point; Two visual-blending exercises- segments that teaches children about combining the sounds of letters- called “Hug” and”Oscar’s Blending” were watched to ensure they were productive. In “Hug” a little muppet girl says the sounds of the letters “H” “U” “G” over again until she combines them into one word. In another segment, “Oscar’s Blending,” Oscar the Grouch and the Muppet Crummy play a game called “Breakable Words,” which includes the deconstruction and construction of words. Oscar and Crummy repeat the sounds of “C-“ and “-at” faster and faster until they form “Cat.” They both hold children’s attention, though researchers were wondering how much the kids learned from it. They used a machine to tracks the kid’s eye movements to see if they were looking at the muppets or the letters. The results were very final, with “Hug” having seventy-six percent of all watching time on the letters. However, “Oscar’s Blending” only got attention on the letters thirty-five percent of the time. Oscar the Grouch’s movements attracted too much attention and ended up taking away from the educational value of the lesson. As the letters were in the

Child poverty is and has been a big problem in America, and children below the poverty line do not do well in school. David H. Arnold, a scholar and studier on the subject, said in an article, "Child poverty has reached epidemic proportions within the United States. Of the 35.6 million people living in poverty in 1997, 14.1 million were children … One third of American children spend at least one year below the poverty line, and 18% experience extreme poverty … Younger children are more likely to face poverty… and its impact may be strongest during children's earliest years ... Among poverty's effects is a devastating negative influence on academic achievement; the relation between socioeconomic status … and underachievement is most dramatic near and below the poverty line” (Arnold). Child poverty is a very real problem in America and most children with money problems are likely to fall behind in school. In addition, Parents having a bad education will most likely lead to poverty, and it is hard for their children to improve their way of life after they have based under the poverty line. In Arnold’s article, he stated; "Numerous factors contribute to the relation between [economic stance] and educational outcomes … Such factors may, for example, have repercussions on child cognitive functioning or parenting, and in turn, educational