Did We Forget the Way To Sesame Street?

Three classic PBS theme songs have always stuck with me: "Reading Rainbow," "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" and "Sesame Street." (As a quick aside, I remember how funny it must have been hearing a kid trying to mimic the baritone part of the Carmen Sandiego theme song.)

Now that I look back at it, maybe I took all that for granted. 

It might be hard to believe there was readily accessible programming where a vampire could teach how to count numbers, and you could learn how to be a detective tracking a woman with a flashy red coat and debonair hat over Europe. But it was, and that was the beauty of it. Education was cool. A program like "Sesame Street" not only teaches children things as a school supplement, but also provides a space where they can be accepting of others who don't share their same backgrounds. Where else would you find a big, yellow bird to be best friends with an elephant named Mr. Snuffleupagus?

‘Sesame Street’ speaks to emotions and conflict resolution because the show’s center approaches children as people. Society views children as balls of clay that can mold with traumas, biases, and an overwhelming feeling of impossibility concerning imagination.  The public good of "Sesame Street" can’t even escape the winding road of capitalism that values constant growth and dollars over something being a shared resource. It started in 2015 when HBO obtained the right to air first-run episodes of "Sesame Street" due to funding challenges. New episodes would run on PBS a few months later, but that’s not the point. This move essentially put an informative children’s program under a paywall structure. With the many price increases happening with streaming services on what feels like a quarterly basis, not every household can afford Max with all the economic stressors.

 On Wednesday, Warner Bros Discovery announced it would not renew its partnership with “Sesame Street” because of a shift away from children’s programming. But old episodes will remain on the service until 2027. Now, the show has to find another partner, like a regular streaming show. I’m sure someone will bite, but there’s a flippantness in which we discard tools like “Sesame Street,” which is worrisome.

It speaks to an overall crisis point in how some view education. At one time, it meant learning about different places, people, and things instead of instilling fear, resentment, and close-mindedness inside the guise of protection. Teachers don’t make enough money and must work with dwindling resources they often have to provide on their own dime. Now, they must deal with book bans, curriculum restraints, and misguided hostility from parents and politicians who seek to impart their enclosed idea of education on everyone. 

With all that confusion and chaos, there’s an opening to allow companies to decide what is essential. Pixar decided to cut a transgender storyline from its upcoming first long-form series, “Win or Lose,” due out in 2025. If you’ve been paying attention to Disney at large, you’ll see that even the slightest bit of representation receives backlash from a small, but loud community. People were upset that a same-sex couple kiss was shown briefly in 2022’s “Lightyear.” (which was cut, but then restored). The recent “Star Wars” projects receive considerable non-good-faith pushback at any attempts to diversify stories (these are fantasy stories, after all). We are heading towards an ecosystem that not only sees a vital program like “Sesame Street” get sold from entity to entity, but an atmosphere funneling kids to look toward one specific ideal. 

I would think that keeping the storyline in “Win or Lose” would invoke discussions within families about people who identify with different gender associations and cultures. Showing things in the world doesn’t impart said things to the children. Kids are bright, and perhaps adults should see that. It feels like the efforts of shielding kids from things they will eventually see are proven to be more fruitful than protecting them from school shootings or controlling our own inherent biases. Because if you have to have these talks, that’s exactly what you will have to do.

"Sesame Street" is a foundational good, many of which we are losing. Just because some adults have forgotten the way there does not mean they should then cut off access for those to come after.