Mr. Rogers Hangs Up His Sweater & Turns Out the Lights
By Barbara Duncan (bjdnycla@aol.com)
For more than 30 years, Fred Rogers has been producing and hosting television programs aimed at making all young children feel good about themselves and less fearful about dealing with life. Now retiring, he was reputedly the first to include disabled children on U.S. educational television programs, the most famous of which is Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
This show, which will live on in re-runs, is much lower key than the better known Sesame Street, concentrating on children's feelings and helping them learn to express and handle emotions. Many program segments were about difference and it was not unusual for children of all ethnic groups and with various disabilities to be featured as guests.
Knowing young children's need for repetition and routine, Mr. Rogers regularly turned out lights before he went outside and hung up his sweater in a closet when he came back inside. This level of mundane detail drove some parental viewers away but reassured his young audience that he understood them.
Over the years, Mr. Rogers and his staff supplemented the programs with written materials for children, elementary school educators and others who work with children. One book called, Let's Talk About It: Extraordinary Friends, portrays some real-life disabled and non-disabled children getting to know each other. A recent set of materials helps children to understand mental illness in the family and provides information for adults who want to help build a family's coping skills. The set is comprised of a 20 minute video, My Mom Still Loves Me, a 24 page storybook, Good Weather or Not, and a resource manual. Details about these and other materials are available on the web: www.misterrogers.org
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