Keller @ Large: The Influence Of Sesame Street

BOSTON (CBS) - Monday is the 45th anniversary of the debut of Sesame Street, arguably the most influential show in the history of television.

Within a decade, nine millions kids were watching Sesame Street every day. As it approached its 15th birthday, studies showed almost 90-percent of children in kindergarten through second grade had watched it at least once a week before they started going to school.

In other words, Sesame Street has been a formative early experience for several generations of American kids.

But toward what end?

Sesame Street's creators believed that the use of modern broadcasting techniques – short segments, bright colors, snappy music, and a mix of animation, puppets and human performers – could counteract the short attention span of pre-schoolers and engage them for an extended period. They also believed they could do those kids and society some good by not just giving them a head start on the numbers and the alphabet, but also by delivering lessons of coping and tolerance.

There isn't much doubt they accomplished many of those goals.

Tons of studies have documented Sesame Street's positive impact on early learning. We're a more tolerant culture than we were in 1969, and Sesame Street deserves its share of the credit.

Plus, I can attest to the fact that when you absolutely had to keep the tots out of your hair for a half-hour, parking them in front of Sesame Street was a feel-good option.

But there are detractors, too, who see in Sesame Street-addiction the roots of today's shorter-than-ever attention spans in kids and adults, and our addiction to staring at screens of all types.

Sounds like blaming the messenger to me, but it does underscore a life lesson Sesame Street won't teach you – no good deed goes unpunished.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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