GN Commentary: November 16, 2009 - 40 Years of Sesame Street

Sesame Street has done a lot in its 40 years to strengthen important life skills in younger generations.

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Video Transcript

So Sesame Street is officially over the hill now, eh, Mr. Evans?

Yes, it's hard to believe that it came out when I was only eight.

What?

Uhh…nothing,

No, really—what is it?

It's just, uh…you were really eight once?

Believe it or not. Now this was before your time, but Sesame Street used to do some parodies of The Beatles' songs—"Letter B," "Hey Food," "With a Little Yelp From My Friends," that sort of thing.

Hey, neat! You know, I remember the Spin Doctors making an appearance.

The who?

Naw, don't remember seeing them.

Well, it's no surprise that the show has changed a little with the times. What is surprising is that today, more than 40 years after it started, it's still going strong.

Yeah, 40 years! That's like…what, they'd just finished setting up Stonehenge then, right?

Er…well, anyway! Sesame Street was a pretty revolutionary concept for its time, wasn't it?

It certainly was. It was one of the first shows to focus exclusively on captivating children—teaching them everything from reading and counting to dealing with emotions.

Hmm…that almost reminds me of a passage from the Bible.

Proverbs 22:6?

Exactly. "Train up a child in the way he should go…"

"…and when he is old he will not depart from it."

So that's it, then! When I have a kid, I'll just plunk ‘em down in front of the TV set and turn on Sesame Street. Man, and they say parenting's difficult!

Well…well, no, there's a bit more to it than that. The Bible also stresses the importance of actively teaching God's commandments to our children, "speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

Oh…yeah, that's kind of a big deal, too, isn't it?

One of the biggest!

Excellent point. Still, Sesame Street has done a lot in its 40 years to strengthen important life skills in younger generations. So a very happy birthday to the show and congratulations to all the dedicate folks who have kept it going!

For GN Magazine, I'm David Evans.

And I'm Jeremy Lallier.

Today's commentary was brought to you by the letter G.

And the letter N.

And viewers like you!