Originally Posted By Mr X Man, this guy was awsome. Talk about a positive force for change. I had no IDEA that he not only contributed to positive programming for children, but perhaps even SAVED it on that day! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a41lJIhW7fA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =a41lJIhW7fA</a> Sure wish HE were still around, we need more like him!
Originally Posted By Mr X On second thought, maybe this belongs in Community after all? I figured Senate Hearings and all that, but who the heck could pick a fight about Mister Rogers?
Originally Posted By Mr X <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaJQLgiXKO0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =kaJQLgiXKO0</a>
Originally Posted By knightnfrees Man, that did my heart good to see that. Thanks X for posting that link. Mr. Rogers was a very caring man. He was back then and until he died. He is definately missed. While watching the senator, I was reminded about the line from the Grinch..."and on that day, his heart grew 3 times..." Very touching.
Originally Posted By Mr X lol...totally (grinch analogy)! I read somewhere that they tried to play a trick on Mr. Rogers in a hotel room...they set up a camera and rigged a bunch of stuff to fall down and break etc... He never got angry. Finally, they told him about the gag and he just laughed. Patience of a saint, that guy. And a WONDERFUL friend to kids, and role model for any adult who has kids in their lives!
Originally Posted By Mr X <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcvRMHz4mb4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =UcvRMHz4mb4</a> Is it just me, or does anyone else feel a post-9/11 melancholy vibe in this touching video? In any case...wow. Loved the guy as a small kid...made fun of him as an older kid/teen, and sort of forgot about him after that. And now I think, I'm really, really mourning his passing. Talk about a great American. This guy belongs right up in the front ranks imho! *sniff*
Originally Posted By knightnfrees Public Television just isn't the same w/o the likes of Mr. Rogers, Shari Lewis, and Jim Henson. Quality educational programming is what they produced and I'm certainly glad I had the privelege of watching their work.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 ^^^^^^^^^ Amen to all 3. I think Mr X's cycle is pretty typical of how most people viewed him. As a teen he was to 'square' to admit you liked - even if you really did - but I can tell you as a parent - what a great role model on Tv - for education, for caring about people, for expanding oneself through knowledge and music etc --- He was a true classic. Truth be known always thought Lady Aberlin was hot - not sure why, but did. LOL ! ( geez, now I sound like Trippy )
Originally Posted By Mr X Lady Aberlin was that hot chick all us little kids had a huge crush on, before we knew what a crush was. Lucky Prince Tuesday grrrrrr.
Originally Posted By Mr X Amazing how he was talking about that cartoon-style "bombardment" way back in 1969 too...just look at the way TV works nowadays! I was actually shocked a few years ago when I happened upon the "new" sesame street. Gone was the old, mellow theme music...replaced with a "quick image", rap-style hip hop version that rivaled an MTV video! And that's SESAME STREET. I'm sure they had to do it to insure that today's kids bothered to tune in for more than 5 seconds! No wonder every kid is hyperactive and suffering for "disorders" such as ADD!
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <Lady Aberlin was that hot chick all us little kids had a huge crush on, before we knew what a crush was. Lucky Prince Tuesday grrrrrr. < you betcha ! Didn't know why, but she was it !
Originally Posted By Mr X Here's an amazing interview with Fred Rogers on the Charlie Rose show (about a third of the way in). I never realized this, but he was very much in tune with the whole "Power of Now" stuff that I find so important and fascinating (Eckhart Tolle is pretty much my "spiritual guide" if there is such a thing...he's the author of "The Power of Now). Such a peacefulness about the guy...absolutely present in the moment even if he never really put it in those terms! <a href="http://tinyurl.com/25kyuf" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/25kyuf</a>
Originally Posted By Mr X Another thing is that Fred Rogers and Eckhart Tolle..talk...very....slowly. And it's funny to watch how they never really vary their own speech, but eventually whoever is talking to them slows down as well. I wonder if that's part of the whole "being present" thing..
Originally Posted By SuperDry Wow - what touching videos. <<< I read somewhere that they tried to play a trick on Mr. Rogers in a hotel room...they set up a camera and rigged a bunch of stuff to fall down and break etc... He never got angry. Finally, they told him about the gag and he just laughed. Patience of a saint, that guy. >>> That's an amazing story. It's one thing to have a certain public persona, but to have the one he did and have it perfectly match the way he really was, well that's quite special.
Originally Posted By JohnS1 I thought Mr. Rogers was great, but at great risk of introducing some negative aspects to his style, he did unfortunately contribute to the contemporary mantra of overblown self-esteem, in my opinion. It was great to tell people that they were special and nobody else was like them, but it also helped give us a generation of kids who are routinely unchallenged to improve, to compete or to recognize any faults in themselves.
Originally Posted By Mr X You don't think the "dumb and dummer" mentality of all the REST of television is more likely a contributing cause? I really don't see anything wrong with telling a child "you're special and unique". Can't agree on this one.
Originally Posted By Mr X Yeah, sorry but I'm not seeing that AT ALL myself. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xatZgEZ62fU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =xatZgEZ62fU</a> Here's a video where he spends time with a breakdancing kid. Notice how he not only compliments the kids' skill, but also focuses a LOT on how much time and dedication it took the kid to get there.
Originally Posted By JohnS1 I understand your reluctance to accept anything negative about Fred Rogers. It's like when people have something negative to say about Walt Disney, like the negative aspects of his "humanization" of wild animals in his true life nature shows, or his perpetuation of the "prince riding in to rescue the helpless maiden" storylines, etc. Today's dumbed down forms of entertainment are a backlash, I think, to the softer, gentler sort of TV that Rogers represented. Whereas he urged us all to get along with everybody, today's tv always finds complete fools for us to mock and laugh at, thereby feeling better about ourselves by comparison. So I'm not saying that Rogers' brand of television for children was all bad. Nor am I saying that Mr. Rogers single-handedly damaged certain aspects of a generation of kids, but I believe he was inadvertantly part of an educational movement. I have done a lot of reading about this educational movement and I think it's interesting to see how entrenched self-esteem became in educational training in this country. Beginning as early as the 1970s, I think, the self-esteem movement urged teachers to rank a student's personal development ahead of his or her achievement in reading, writing, arithmetic and science. The idea was that if students had high self-esteem, learning would simply take care of itself. This was a very attractive idea to an education profession which was already into "progressive" educational thinking. The self-esteem factor also seemed to explain why many students did not respond enthusiastically to various forms of progressive teaching. These students were simply impaired by poor self-esteem. Meanwhile, books like I'm OK You're OK were doing the same sorts of things for adults. Pretty soon, the teacher-as-therapist idea became the rage and most teachers in training eagerly adopted it. And when students still failed to respond as expected, the self-esteem movement simply preached that more therapy was needed. They saw cultural, economic, and societal factors as barriers to positive self-esteem and student enthusiasm for learning. Teacher training increasingly encouraged teachers to become social activists and to see students as victims of conditions beyond their control. Just about the only academic notable who rejected these ideas as scientifically unfounded was B. F. Skinner, who was then villified by the "progressive mainstream" who trashed and distorted virtually everything connected with him. Over the past few years, the self-esteem movement has been rejected by a growing number of education professionals, but much of what it recommended in teaching and child rearing has become regarded as accepted wisdom. But like so many other untested educational fads, it had many negative effects that went beyond simple failure to improve academic achievement. One of these was to produce a generation of fragile and self-absorbed children who are prone to depression and are incapable of dealing with real life when they leave cschool and embark on careers. Sorry - didn't mean to go into lecture mode.
