Why I (Still) Get A Kick Out of Sesame Street

Sesame Street and its memorable characters are still entertaining me, many years after their usefulness as my school tutor has diminished - so why do I love them so? As that above clip shows, the characters are still teaching me things I didn't know (beyond why Cookie Monster loves eating EVERYTHING except for sardine flavored ice cream).

'Ol CM used a word I had never heard before when he described his least favorite word: pusillanimous. I didn't know what that meant, so I found the definition online:

pusillanimous, adj. Lacking courage; cowardly.

Thanks to Cookie, I don't have to be pusillanimous when it comes to using the word pusillanimous. Maybe he isn't a word expert (or gourmand), but I remember watching him on Sesame Street as being an enlightening and entertaining experience. Why aren't there educational shows like SS anymore?

Probably because other shows are too busy coddling young minds. Take Dora The Explorer, for instance - sure, Dora and Co. speak Spanish in such a way that encourages use of context clues to learn another language. But the show doesn't directly challenge kids - it prompts the audience with a question like "Can you help me find a naranja?" (naranja means orange in Spanish) when the character is standing right in front of an orange tree. Also, regardless of whether the kid actually figures out that naranja translates to orange, the character says "You're right! There is an orange behind me on that tree!"

Sesame Street, on the other hand, doesn't muddle around with context clues - it gives the kid the answer right away and repeats it over and over throughout the episode. Using this same example, Big Bird might pick a naranja from a tree on Sesame Street, tell the audience what it means, then "orange" becomes the entire theme of the episode.

Cookie Monster, in that clip, also doesn't telling me what pusillanimous is - because HE used that word, I was curious enough to find out the definition. He tied his memorable character to a new idea - one which I embraced.

And that's why I'm still on my way to where the air is sweet.

-Ryan