I will admit to this: Sesame Street played an important role in my understanding of the alphabet, addition, subtraction and fractions. In a gentle way, Seasme Street also told stories that helped me to better understand tolerance, cooperation and other important life skills. Kermit, Big Bird, Grover, and associates spoke to me in ways that some of my “actual” teachers could not. I am happy to say that my beloved Sesame Street has remained true to form.
Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times is a television special produced by Sesame Street that looks at how families are coping with financial challenges. In a plain spoken manner, we learn what unemployment, loss of a home, spending, budgeting and saving really means to families.
Told within the context of a neighborhood, families candidly share stories of their financial challenges. We also learn how they are responding. In their response we see their strength. Displays of strength are shown when a father describes how it feels to be unemployed and when a young girl decides to sell her prized possessions for extra money.
It took the genius of our beloved Sesame Street to shine the light on how the economy affects families with children, but instead of feeling sorry for the families, we end up feeling inspired – inspired by their resilience.
(I also want to take a moment to give big shout out to the staff and board at the Carnegie Corporation that in 1966 awarded the two-year grant that launched Sesame Street.)
