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Sesame Street Begins Teaching Math and Science
An anonymous reader sends in this excerpt from ABC News:
"This season of 'Sesame Street,' which premiered today, has added a few new things to its usual mix of song, dance and educational lessons. In its 42nd season, the preschool educational series is tackling math, science, technology, and engineering — all problem areas for America's students — in hopes of helping kids measure up. ... This season, 'Sesame Street' will include age-appropriate experimentation — even the orange monster Murray will conduct science experiments in a recurring feature."
"You hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability."
Right wing wackos go postal in 3...2...1...
This alone will probably do more to improve education than the entire No Child Left Behind Act. Provided, of course, that it actually teaches the purpose of experimentation and science, teaches kids to ask "why?" and devise experiments to test ideas. All too often, "kid science" is "do this, then this, and now look at the pretty (green goo|flames|shiny), followed by a lecture on what went on. I'm hopeful that this will be one of the ones to get it right.
What about when they get to E=MC2
Because last time i checked, C is for cookie, thats good enough for me
. .
Murry? Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker are the only muppets that should be conducting experiments!
Is Bill Nye dressing up as Big Bird?
I just saw Will Arnett as Max the Magician (ala Arrested Development) teaching addition and subtraction the other day. Hillarious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsuvBrXcm0Q&list=PLCCB3D86E6391F8DF&index=13
They always ARE postal ....
Read radical news here
If Sesame Street helps reduce the frequency of math-phobes in our young population, I will be eternally thankful. Too many people have escaped learning math due to being afraid of it; if they are introduced to it at a young age they might not develop an irrational fear of it.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Yes, now my idea for an awesome episode ending can come true! "This show was brought to you by the letter 01000001"
Kids can not learn math from sitting there staring at a TV.
If you're going to have the government teach your children, at least use the correct language. National Socialist Worker's of America need to know their native language if they are to complete their shovel ready jobs.
I for one would like to see Elmo experiment with fire.
Sorry, I meant "experimented".
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
We don't watch much TV (I watch one NFL game a week and we do some Netflix streaming) and our son definitely doesn't (and probably won't watch much more than football even after he reaches the suggested age of two). However, after observing the TV watching habits of those with children we know, especially one who proudly placed a photo online of their child watching Futurama, I'm going to guess that STEM education via PBS isn't as going to do as much as they may hope.
Surely they can bring Bunsen and Beaker over from the muppet show...
Sounds like the worries of the John Birch Society. Write a blog entry about it on Anus.com?
Conservatives and independents of all stripes are cheering this news. We never cared about public funding for NPR because we knew Sesame Street could get by just fine without federal support or meddling.
As for the story, teaching kids to question things for themselves spells the end of the liberal state. For then you start asking just where your money goes, as just one example, or why when just as you learned on Sesame Street that real scientists share data, and AGW "scientists" only share data with pals of like minds...
No, A controlling state does not like inquisitive minds.
It seems like a lot of Slashdot liberals could stand to start watching Sesame Street again, you could learn all kinds of things.
P.S. Not sure why they are saying Sesame Street is starting to teach math, it has always taught math.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
is brought to you by the Avogadro number.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
The only true TV scientist is Beakman. Bill Nye is a Beakman wannabe, 100000x less interesting. But Bill had the backing and so Beakman was lost to us all.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
mod this -1 troll.
Please say this means more Beaker and Bunsen. While more Muppets than Sesame Street, they could still have a (hilarious) place in such education entertainment.
Of course, Bunsen might need to learn a bit of science, first...
I'm OK with Sesame Street teaching anything short of religious tolerance and legal rights. That's such a landmine that I'm certain the second they try to be inclusive of muslim characters, some asshole jihadist will want everyone killed, and that's too much of a liability for them. I'm totally making a serious face while typing this, they've in the past edited or didn't air things when they thought it would cause advertisers to drop out (Sorry that Katry Perry was too good for Elmo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHROHJlU_Ng), or send legal threats to any and all websites that make fair use of their muppet characters regardless of how fair use it is.
But I'm OK with them teaching anything they should be learning in school. I was never a fan of the show, and for above stated reasons, I'm not particularly fond of it's spineless corporate overlords, but I'm OK with them being a better educational tool than the failing US education system. Just watch out for advertisements that are a conflict of interest.
Seems like a natural consequence of having any political actors on the show. It's the naive part of me, but I still think having the first lady on can be neat, regardless of which party is involved.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
1, 1 electrons, 2, 2 electrons, 3, 3 electrons, 4, 4 electrons , 5, 5 electrons , 6, 6 electrons, 7, 7 electrons!
Come now, we all know Rupert Murdoch is not going to approve. Expect Fox and Friends to present this as indoctrinating/brainwashing our youth, compare it to Hitler-Jugend, and call out PBS for "pro-government leftist propaganda". Then, it will just be a matter of time before Sesame Street either turns back from teaching math or gets taken off the air.
Johnny was a scientist,
but Johnny is no more.
For what Johnny thought was H20,
was H2SO4.
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I still don't understand math. I can manipulate the symbols but I don't understand what the symbols represent. I believe that as a student in any discipline, understanding the things that the symbols represent is far more essential than being able to decode the symbols without comprehension.
Sure I have basic concepts down such as whole numbers, but more complex functions are completely lost on me.
I would be ever grateful to a math educator who could teach understandable concepts first, followed distantly by symbolic notation.
Now that you understand what I'm taking about, I'll give this concept a name: "numbers vs numerals"
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
When I was young, like 3-4, I had a TI-99. On it there weren't many games, so I enjoyed playing a math tutor. The math tutor was not a game, but it used graphics and was engrossing. I am now extremely good at math, with my last course being differential equations about a decade ago.
My theory is: I think if someone would come up with software, that simply engaged you, but was educational, it could educate people from K-college if you added enough content. The software can be replicated for free, is more portable than 1,000 books, and can do more than books can.
Before World of Warcraft came out(before any MMORPG), I knew there would be one MMORPG to rule them all. The same goes for the revolution in education. It is simply cost prohibitive to do the education revolution twice, but once someone does it, every human on the planet will use it.
Who will it be: Open source? Commercial? Adbased free?(ugh please no) or maybe a philanthropic billionaire wants to do it right.
I long to see the day when there are highly educated kids in the third world simply because there is nothing more entertaining to them than learning.
Like I said,"This is my theory, but probably your theory too."
Sesame Street is never going to be teaching Fluid Dynamics for Engineering, because you need so much education to build yourself up there. Television cannot do what a computer can do: Assess your education level then give you appropriate course work. This is cool because even people who forgot what they learned, but can't retake courses, can get with the program and become highly educated.
Modern man no longer gets educated and then gets a job. Modern man gets educated, gets a job if they're lucky, but never stops learning.
God spoke to me
Have gnu, will travel.
Cookie Monster has been castrated. Cookies are a "sometimes food", and he mostly eats vegetables now.
I thought the show jumped the shark when Snuffleufagus(sp?) was discovered as real but this is worse.
Whats next? Oscar the Grouch starts liking things and keeps clean.
Super Grover no longer flys just incase other children try to imitate such things?
And Elmo is the antithesis of all that was ever good about the show.
Agreed.
. .
There's an alarming amount of pro-liberal, pro-government and pro-business propaganda on Sesame Street in addition to the lessons of childhood.
Yes there is.
Which is why it is amazing they are actually letting the concept of science, in particular the drive to question things, to be shown.
The only way I can figure it is that the Libertarians got in a mole. Good work, hopefully they can keep it up at least a whole season.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
NPR and PBS are the best mass-media expression of USA democracy I've seen in my half-century of existence. Unfortunately, cunts like Rupert Murdoch can afford to jam their signals.
i am not impressed, please to check the last time i bothered logging in, i dunno who makes sesamie street but if you dont start selling to channle four cheap again i will hunt you down and kill your hamster
There's an alarming amount of pro-liberal, pro-government and pro-business propaganda on Sesame Street in addition to the lessons of childhood. I wouldn't trust it any more than late Soviet propaganda.
No there isn't. I'm fairly well attuned to these things and watch Sesame Street with my kids.
Prove me wrong with five examples.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Have you ever had a girlfriend/boyfriend?
A. No - this is /.
Mr. Rogers was proven to be more effective in studies, resulting in SOME changes in Sesame Street as far as they were willing to give in to his approach.
We have entering COLLEGE students (from USA) who have embarrassingly low scores in things as simple as telling FACT from OPINION!!! As a pre-school (or a few years after) program they need to focus on the foundation of math and science-- not literally math or science. Numbers and reading are highly critical concepts as are things like FACT and OPINION, basic reasoning not only would help them fend of heavy marketing (its public tv-- the only place they'll get that) but also everything that requires it (that is for kids who figure things out despite the memorization focus of todays system.) Knowing what a theory is doesn't not matter yet; it would be better to cover issues like getting along in school and adapting to that situation would accomplish more (especially for autistic spectrum kids) or thinking from the view of another person (a new concept they won't likely grasp well at that age.) Learning takes WORK -- they need address common learning blocks kids have since most places are not smart enough to employ child psychologists (but plenty of elementary schools have cops, how sick is that??) Parents are not around anymore, nor are they going to necessarily do a good job addressing (or noticing) such issues-- getting along in school is a HUGE factor to success as well as the mental blocks that keep most of us from being those 'super' students - I was one of those myself until I developed a bunch of problems largely created by my school, then my B level work was me in idle except rare times where I was free again to succeed (and then I blew everybody away and would catch up or surpass the teacher in that topic. I was programming before I entered school; it wasn't encouraged.)
While I'm sure their team will tackle it better than the popular mindset in education today, this does reflect the literal thinking harming today's system. Mr. Rogers didn't talk down and asked questions and explored things that were more fundamental which is why his kids did better than those who were merely drilled by puppets (like I said, his success did impact them a little, but they've probably lost whatever wisdom previously rubbed off.)
Most the genius kids merely lack mental blocks to their success in the system; the autistic types have an edge and people have natural strengths in certain kinds of thinking but outside some major physical change we are all capable of being one of those people-- we just don't luck out like they do and pick up emotional issues and misconceptions that hinder us. Some overcome it, Einstein managed despite the hurdles put in his path; however, without those he might not have gotten into the mindset he needed to do what he did; there is a great deal of environmental good luck involved that lets somebody end up in a great path for them. psychological issues are KEY -- brain power is not that genetic; learning can greatly change the physical aspects. A stupid brain can be pumped up and a smart one can be wasted; eventually, long term I do think that the stupid ones can limit their maximum and so it is possible we will devolve... but all the smart ones who are raised to be stupid help counter the process---- we aren't in a situation where the physical difference impacts the gene pool like we were in getting here.
Check the latest uploads in https://www.youtube.com/user/SesameStreet ... They even have two major The Big Bang Theory actors in it!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Beakman's World should be brought back. It was the most fun show I used to watch when I was a kid.
How do you fit in that theory countries with excellent education systems (according to the UN) like Finland, Denmark and Sweden, which also have high taxes and government spending?
You don't. Basically a conservative or liberal political perspective is largely irrelevant with respect to education, everyone wants kids to be educated properly. What is different in the US is that we basically have corrupt teacher's unions and a corrupt educational bureaucracy. The US probably spends more money per student than the countries you mention, unfortunately that money does not make it to the classroom. Way too much money goes to administration and incompetent teachers are protected and can't be fired. Unlike the unions of old, US unions are no longer the guardians of their own trade, training/apprenticing the new members, getting rid of those that can not work to required levels of "craftsmanship". Perhaps the unions in the countries you mention are different.
The reason education takes on a liberal vs conservative appearance in the US is basically because the democratic party is in bed with the corrupt teacher's unions. The vast majority of conservatives want to rebuild the educational system to get rid of the current corrupt system. Only a small handful of conservatives get all worked up over evolution, global warming, etc. Regrettably these few nutbags make for better TV and get all the publicity and provide a distorted picture of conservative goals.
It taught me to stay as far away from the sort of people that associate with reality television as possible.
Can you imagine if they did evolution. The apoplectic response from the Religious Right would give the late night stand up comics enough material for weeks.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Here are 6:
1) Bert and Ernie are the stereotypical NYC gay couple. Pretty liberal to me having two guys give each other baths, sleep in the same room, and playing with rubber duckies. Bert with his balding head of hair is the top gay modelled after some rich NYC lawyer while Ernie is the bottom gay modelled after some wannabe actor serving tables to make a living.
2) Spanish language creeping into show with counting and songs. I know they are trying to cater to population trends but I am pretty sure they are irking conservatives by not sticking to just English. Is the hispanic population boom an integration or an eventual takeover by Mexico of the country?
3) Merchandising all over the place in stores. There is even an Elmo potty for sale at Walmart.
4) Lots of talk of tolerance and sharing and a general disrespect for private property rights. I cite as proof the episode on hair where the King was chastised for forcing a black girl to wear her hair like he does since it is the kingdom where everybody has the same hair style and the Elmo Grouchland movie as proof of sharing and disrespect for private property rights. Apparently trying to unify a population around hair style and claiming sole ownership of your blanket are bad things.
5) And who can forget Kami, the HIV-positive muppet talking to Bill Clinton; please give me more funding for AIDS research or Kami will die.
6) The mocking of Fox News in an Groucho segment clearly stating that Fox News is a trashy news show.
Like most stuff on PBS it is a very skewed towards pro-liberal, pro-democratic-party, and pro-entertainment-business. It is good and my kids love it and I let them watch it but it is the above stuff. Not that that is bad or there is anything wrong with that.
I can only think of two:
1) Mr Hooper's corporate legacy.
2) Hippy liberal acceptance of non-human (aka "monster") lifestyles.
everyone wants kids to be educated properly
Not really, religious fundies don't want educated children, they want obedient children.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Ah.... I remember him. When I was a kid there was Mr. Wizard on the tube on weekdays and a couple of science shows on Saturday morning -- Discovery 66 (67?) and another one I can't recall the name of. After a while my mom knew not to pester me to turn off the TV and go outside and play until after my hour of science programming was finished. I didn't much care for the cartoons on Saturdays but the science shows were great. I'm glad to see some of that coming back even if it's only a portion of Sesame Street. It's a start. And I'm hopeful it'll be better than Bill Nye (not so-o-o bad but I agree with your "fluffy" assessment) and the execrable Beakman's World (aka: science trivia for the short attention span afflicted and, man, talk about your freak show). The show I'd like to see return to the airwaves is the one that was a lecture done by some college professor (MIT? Caltech?) that included some very simple computer graphics that demonstrated the principles being discussed. I remember seeing these on TV back in the early 80s and the shows were probably targetted at at least high school age kids. I can't recall the name but I'm sure that some other Slashdotter does.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
I don't have anything against Bill in particular, he got his start around here and I saw him film one of the segments at the local park, I just wish he wouldn't feel the need to rely so heavily on gimmicks when there's so much really interesting stuff that's available for shows.
I haven't seen Beakman's World, so I won't be commenting on that.
Apparently there are DVDs available, I'll have to get a copy for myse, err nephew.
Please no. Education television has already ruined children's TV as it is, let's not compound the problem.
You want to help kids? Give them dreams. Give them a reason, a desire, a longing to do something great. When they get older, let them think through high-school about building star-ships or finding cures to perplexing diseases or even world peace.
Doing this simply gives kids the tools, but no motivation to use them. They will be intelligent, but unmotivated workers; willing to maintain the status quo, but not to improve it.
Let Mr. Wizard, or Bill Nye, or Beakman handle the fun science / math stuff. Even Batman fits here, though he's more sci-fi.
I am John Hurt.
If this is satire, it's brilliant. If this is serious, you're a scared, pitiful little creature. Teaching kids to share toys as left-wing propaganda... it's the perfect example of Poe's Law.
What about that cool pinball animation from the 1970s? 1 2 3 4 5, 6 7 8 9 10, 11 12! Maybe it didn't teach children to use a base-12 number system, but it probably helped some of them to learn that numbers exist in addition to the customary 10 digits on their hands. Atypical kids already had 12 fingers, but that's a subject for another conversation.
To
I guess they can make it official, but as someone with a child that's been watching this for a while now, they already started this before. They had a whole episode explaining the scientific method last season, and many of the other episodes showed math and discussed observation skills.
I've only seen the 1st episode this season so far though, which had the word of the day as "Engineer." Perhaps this is just a sign that they intend to do it every episode and make it even more of a focus, which is cool.
Maybe Murray can figure out the neutrino thing.
Other countries' children watch Sesame Street as well. If this new programming helps anyone, it will also help everyone. The USA will remain in the same position until the underlying cultural changes occur.
Is "Square One" still around?
We have a culture problem among certain minority groups which equates doing well in school as being white. Until you find a way to end this destructive behavior nothing much is going to have an effect past the early years of school. Most kids, even from the poorest areas, do find initially. It is when peer pressure gets involved that they willingness to learn is affected.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Learning our kids the basics of modern life in one of their most important amusement and education moments.
The 42nd season, that's why 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything!!!
Every answer is repeated by some purple dude in a cape, who then laughs: "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!!!"
/Get your learn on, Aight?
With PBS stations around the nation closing left and right, it's a shame that the ever growing population of people who are ditching their cable for OTA broadcasting won't have Sesame Street for their children.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
I was wondering how long it would take for an anti-union douche to show up in this discussion. Unionization makes teaching more attractive by preventing a teacher from being fired for taking risks and innovating. There's always going to be some wingnut parent that disagrees with something the teacher is discussing in class, be it evolution, women's rights, religion, even education. Allowing teachers to be fired basically on a parent's whim makes it that much harder to attract good teachers, and it's pretty damn hard already. Do unions have their downsides? Sure. But they don't have a monopoly on corruption. Management is just as corrupt, if not more so.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
You're probably thinking of The Mechanical Universe hosted by a CalTech prof. I used to get up on Saturday mornings, eat breakfast, watch cartoons for 90 minutes, then watch TMU. Meant I had a good background before I even got to high school Physics.
Much as I enjoyed Bill Nye as an adult, it was still too much aimed at the ADD crowd IMO. Never watched Beakman's World. Mr. Wizard was better paced for the pre-MTV crowd.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Aleph One! Hah ah ah ahhhh!!
Aleph Two!! Ah ah ah ah ah!!!
By grade 8 will American kids finally be able to compete with grade 2 Canadians :-), Can't wait to see this.
...only have one member, it seems.
Oh, please, please bring Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker on Sesame Street.
Also, having Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul on as guest stars would be "the bomb."
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
By the time today's kids are looking for jobs, there will be no STEM jobs in America.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Only true science can be communicated with Dr. Bunsen, and lab assistant Beaker at the "helm."
For real science, Pat Paulson's "Mr. Wizard" character was always an eye opener,(good times, good times).
I thought that Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker had been teaching science proper for years now. Only problem was that you couldn't understand what Beaker was protesting about....
Maybe they'd have time to learn how to read and count instead.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
My daughter's favorite show is Sesame Street, and she is turning 3. My son, who is turning 7 often watches it with her. As a result I am very familiar with the show these days. Elmo is a small part of the show. He usually has just one segment of the show, Elmo's World, and it isn't that obnoxious even if you hate Elmo. Cookie Monster is about as big of a part of the show as he has ever been, and although they are careful not to glorify his obsession with cookies in quite the way they used to, he hasn't fundamentally changed, and his enthusiasm for cookies is as high as ever. Kids really pay attention to the show, it has clout with them, so this is very good news.
That's quite the straw man. Unions are hardly the only way to protect a teacher's job from a wingnut parent. The fact remains that union contracts demonstrably protect the incompetent fairly often, as opposed to the fanciful hollywood-like scenario you present. There are numerous non-union schools, charter for example, filled with innovative teachers covering the "controversial" topics you mention like evolution, women's rights, etc.
My son has played around on that a lot, and used the Scientific Method at least once.
Unionization makes teaching more attractive by preventing a teacher from being fired for taking risks and innovating.
The *current* unions make teaching less attractive because teachers are not reward for superior performance and the goods works of the majority are undermined by the bad works of the incompetent that they are forced to work along side. The incompetent who are rewarded over the good because the incompetent have more time in the chair.
We want children growing up with hope. We don't want them all to commit suicide in their teens.
To some people, "properly" means knowing that the earth is 6000 years old.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."