Newspaper Page Text
Pixie people teach about life
HEW funds TV shorts for kids
By JOYCE GABRIEL
NEW YORK - (NEA) -
Children in the U.S. watch
between 30 and 50 hours of
television a week, according
to survey estimates.
With that much exposure,
the tots to teens viewers
hopefully could learn a lot
of useful things from the na
tion’s No. 1 babysitter. TV’s
critics, however, claim the
medium falls far short of its
teaching potential with most
programming not education
al in intent.
Public television has at
tacked this shortcoming with
some success. Sesame Street
and The Electric Company
are classic examples of what
can be done educationally
using this most influential
“member” of the family.
The latest entrant in the
children’s programming field
is the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
HEW funded a series of 50
three-and-o ne- ha 1 f minute
segments dealing with three
crucial areas of life: health,
nutrition and growing up.
The segments are being
shown daily for 10 weeks on
CBS-TV’s Captain Kangaroo
show. Since April 3, children
have been able to tune in the
highly popular Captain and
get a message from HEW
as well. The segments are
bright, entertaining
sequences done in both ani
mation and film. Topics in
clude: the difference be
tween being alone and being
lonely; using food as a tooth
brush; learning how to deal
with making mistakes. They
are far from controversial.
What has caused some
controversy and concern,
however, is that the federal
government for the first
time has funded program
ming for use on a commer
cial network. And the timing
for the segments’ premiere
proved unfortunate since
congressional hearings on
the effects of TV violence on
children had just concluded
in Washington. It seemed to
some to be a politically mo
tivated move to gain favor
on the part of CBS.
However, the facts, as
Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo
himself) relates them, don’t
bear out this charge.
“Last year,” Keeshan ex
plained, “HEW went to Suth
erland Learning Associates
“!■ /fIT ('tiffin Daily News •
Magazine
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Saturday, April 15, 1972
1 r
(a California organization
that’s produced educational/
entertaining programs for 25
years) with a proposal for a
series of segments on health,
nutrition and growing up.
The segments were to be
shown in institutions across
the country. Sutherland then
came to me (Keeshan has
his own production company
for Captain Kangaroo) and
asked me whether I’d. like
to incorporate the segments
into our show. I would do a
few-minutes’ introduction to
the topics and make some
concluding remarks.
“I thought the idea was
great and I went to CBS
President Bob Wood with the
suggestion. He agreed. And
here we are. It’s not as if
the government gave CBS
money for programming.
These shows would have
been made anyway. We’re
just featuring them on our
show.”
Is Keeshan worried that
the government may try to
propagandize in these seg
ments?
“Not at all,” he said. “I
have full editorial control
over the content. If anyone
is propagandizing, it is me.”
And Dr. Edward Zigler, di
rector of the HEW Office of
Child Development, explains
the coalition between the
government and CBS this
way:
CAPTAIN KANGAROO (Bob Keeshan) welcomes some animated friends to the Cap
tain Kangaroo Show. They appear in Health, Education and Welfare-funded 3 ¥2-
minute segments on health, nutrition and growing up and will be featured on his
CBS-TV programs through the week of June 5.
jr
“Our greatest hope for this
series is to get across to
families information on the
growth and development of
children. We are using the
medium of television be
cause it reaches so many
millions. And, since we felt
we needed a personality to
convey the message, we
chose Bob Keeshan because
of his popularity with chil
dren.”
Keeshan sees the segments
as an extension of program
ming he has been doing for
children for nearly 17 years.
Adults will learn from them,
too.
For example, one segment
“Brushing Your Teeth with
Food,” has an animated
character explain to children
that certain foods—such as
raw carrots, raw celery,
corn on the cob—are natural
“toothbrushes” that remove
food particles from between
teeth. Another segment deals
with loneliness and being
alone.
The theme song for the se
ries sums up its basic phil
osophy: “You Are the Most
Important Person in the
World—to You.”
As Bob Keeshan puts it:
“Shows like Sesame Street
and The Electric Company
teach certain skills, such as
reading, spelling, counting.
What I have always done.
and what these segments are
designed to do, is to convey
attitudes to children, to mo
tivate them to learn and to
be interested in the world
around them.”
When Keeshan began his
Captain Kangaroo program
in 1955, he had what was
then a unique approach to
children’s programming. As
Clarabelle on the old Howdy
Doody Show, he had squirted
a seltzer bottle at people and
thrown pies in their faces to
entertain children. As the
Captain, he opted for a gen
tle approach, a combination
of entertainment and educa
tion, based on two main prin
ciples: (1) that a child is an
intelligent human being who
deserves respect; and (2)
that a child, potentially, has
good taste and it is up to
children’s programmers to
encourage that good taste.
In recent years, with the
advent of Children’s Tele
vision Workshop programs
more and more emphasis
has been placed on improv
ing the quality of children’s
programming. And Kee
shan’s soft-sell, gentle ap
proach is the one now fav
ored by educators, psychol
ogists. concerned parents’
groups, and. apparently
HEW. The segments will be
separated for the Fall ’72
season.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)