PBS and early childhood

For this weeks assignment I decided to focus on children's programming in PBS. I watched the shows Dinosaur Train (http://pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain/), Peg+Cat (http://pbskids.org/peg/), and Maya and Miguel (http://pbskids.org/mayaandmiguel/flash.html).

The three shows focus in different educational topics. The first one focused on the geological topics, like how a drought happens and how it can affect the environment. The principal characters are a family of flying dinosaurs with 3 winged kids and one T-rex adopted son. As an educational show for toddlers it's very well developed. The sketches are short, and the repetition of the terminology is age-appropriate, and at the end of the sketch a real-human professor explains in simple words the scientific process dealt with in that episode.

Peg+Cat is a show focused on math. With simple visuals and a short story to contain the concepts, a girl and her cat do simple math exercises.

Finally, Maya and Miguel is a show that deals with broader everyday life topics. It is the story of two latino siblings, Maya and Miguel and their friends. The show is framed in a double language system, so the characters speak both Spanish and English. The interesting part of this show is that the friends are from different races and backgrounds. There is the African- American boy, the White boy with a physical disabillity, an Asian girl, and another Latino girl. Besides, all the characters are able to speak certain amount of Spanish.

After watching these shows it is very comforting to see that diversity is being portrayed in early education shows. Different types of families, diversity within the friend's group, etc. Although stereotypes of race and gender are still exemplified, what is a girl's game and what is a boy's game or typical Latino vocabulary stereotypes, for example; the shows cover in good amount what inclusion is and they do it in a very natural way, without making a big deal out of, which in my opinion normalizes diversity instead of making it an uncommon situation.

From a public diplomacy perspective, PBS has been a major representative of American values and government initiatives throughout the world. On of its most successful campaigns through the years has been Sesame Street and what is know as Muppet Diplomacy.

With Sesame Street, the United States has been able to promote American values in different areas of the world, adapting the characters and topics to the hosting culture. Another benefit for the American government is that they can be accepted in countries that might not be very fond of American policies, but since they do not relate Sesame Street to the government, it's an "undercover" way of approaching the population.

Finally, Sesame Street has done a big effort in adapting the topics to the host country, touching on issues that affect the society and in consequence the childhood in that area. For example, in India they focus on the importance of staying in school, specially for girls; in South Africa they introduced the first HIV/AIDS muppet to teach about the virus; in Northern Ireland they focus on religious tolerance and diversity; in Mexico they focus in healthy eating habits and childhood obesity.

For more information on Muppet Diplomacy: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/publications/perspectives/CPDPerspectives_P2_2011.pdf