I mean, really. They cancelled Square One. They took away Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. NOW they've taken Reading Rainbow.
I mean, I know that my kids LIKE Word World and SuperWhy ... but neither of those have that je ne se quoi that LeVar Burton and his show possessed.
And I shall not even DEIGN to think of WHY THE BLOODY HELL that travesty of a purple dinosour or Teletubbies even EXIST when people who are SUPPOSED to CARE about the future of our nation and the BRAINS of its wee, little children are CANCELLING SOME OF THE BEST CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING EVER TO EXIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!one!
Yes, I AM a tad bit upset. How could you tell?
(No, really. Was it the plethora of capital letters? Or, perhaps, the myriad exclamation points?)
Really ... I I were in charge of instilling knowledge in the heads of children, there are a few shows that I find are mandatory:
- Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood
- Sesame Street
- Reading Rainbow
- Schoolhouse Rock
- Square One
Those are the shows that I really recall totally influencing me as I was growing up.
Sesame Street taught basics (letters, shapes, numbers, counting, basic arithmetic, and some social skills). Mr. Rogers totally taught social skills and gave a glimpse into the world (LOVED the mini-field trips where we watched how things were made!!). Reading Rainbow helped to cement my love of reading.
(Michael often tells me that I obviously wanted to be one of the kids on there giving a little book review. And he's SO totally right.)
Square One (especially Mathnet, their parody of Dragnet) actually made me interested in Math. (I never have totally LOVED Math ... but this helped SO much.)
And, of course, Schoolhouse Rock was a great way of teaching concepts through songs. Very, very catchy songs.
(My Sophomore year of HS English felt like SUCH a waste of my time since I already KNEW what a noun, verb, pronoun, and adjective all were. I even knew what an adverb was and how to use one. ... And, because of Schoolhouse Rock, I'd known what all these things were since my mom brought home Grammar Rock and Multiplication Rock on VHS. -- I've since bought the DVD with the whole collection. And I LOVE it SO much.)
Last time something like this happened (i.e., when Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was cancelled), I wrote to both PBS and OPB ... and nothing happened.
So I am not doing anything really this time. I'm just kvetching to you and going to curl up in a corner and cry.
Seriously ... if Reading Rainbow and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood are cancelled while *shudders* Barney still stays on the air ... well, I'm not surprised that the world is in the state that it's in. Grrr.
At least I've raised my children right. Bucket will tell me, "We don't watch Barney."
And my kids know a good portion of the lyrics to "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. And their numbers and letters. And they usually will remember to say "please" and "thank you" and not call people fat.
And my kids know a good portion of the lyrics to "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. And their numbers and letters. And they usually will remember to say "please" and "thank you" and not call people fat.
I mean, I can understand that maybe there's not the funding for full seasons of new episiodes of Reading Rainbow. I know that money's tight. I know that the government doesn't seem to want to spend money on educating people instead of lining their own pockets and their own medical insurance and pensions ... but why can't there be a promise that Reading Rainbow and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood would ALWAYS be on ALL public broadcasting stations ... I mean, Fred Rogers was a HUGE reason there even WAS public broadcasting.
Yes. I'm sad and cynical today. *sigh*
It just sucks. Really, really, really, really sucks.
I mean, really. REALLY, really, really, really, really sucks.
Do you understand the magnitude of the suckage? Because it is VAST.
1 comment:
Aww, I am mourning a bit inside....
I will always remember how much I loved Reading Rainbow.
That is the show that addicted my children to the Titanic. We saw it on an episode about treasures, and that's all it took.
The only reason Mr. C sat through my sisters university graduation was because LaVar Burton was the guest speaker that year.
Big Tears!
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