From: nsmith@tms390.micro.ti.com (Neal Smith)
Subject: Re: Sesame Street having "sassy" kids.
Organization: Texas Instruments, Houston
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 19:30:31 GMT

Tamara Shaffer:

Tamara> [MIL] ... says SS is bad because it shows
Tamara> lots of examples of children being sassy, sarcastic, and talking-back.
Tamara> I am as yet undecided -- I like SS, but that's her opinion and I do
Tamara> respect her opinion.  What do the rest of you think?

Maureen Busch:

Maureen> We don't watch SS religiously in our home, but we've seen our share
Maureen> of episodes over the years, and I do have to ask where are all these
Maureen> examples of children being sassy, sarcastic, and talking-back?? 

Tamara> I agree with you Maureen. (...)
Tamara> ...  I wasn't trying to bash SS myself, just asking
Tamara> for the net's opinion.  So far, no one (that I've seen) has stood up
Tamara> and said "That's right!  Those nasty mouthed kids drive my child to
Tamara> crime!" :)
Tamara>  
Tamara> So, have any of the rest of you seen these sassy, sarcastic,
Tamara> back-talking kids on SS?

I definitely missed that episode.  Mind you, even though I work, I see SS when
they show it on Sundays here, and we have a couple of tapes where we taped
some SS episodes for him to watch if he's been good at home but kids' shows
aren't on.  The closest I've seen to a "sassy" attitude would be Oscar's,
maybe, and even that's a stretch.  By the way, I think one of the redeeming
point of Sesame Street is Oscar (or grouches in general).  On most kids' shows,
everyone is always happy, even perky, and the world (of course) isn't like
that.  I'm not asking for total realism (I DON'T want the voilence of the
streets finding it's way into kids' shows), but I think it's refreshing to
have a character who isn't always (or even usually) happy, but is still
usually presented as a "good" guy, not evil.

As for the kids, most of the smaller ones that appear on that show tend
to come accross as shy, needing prompting from the adults or muppet
characters.  Sassy?  What sassy?  Where sassy?  I have to ask myself what
the educator meant who said this.  Depending on the adult, some consider
jokes, playing, or even asking questions about what's going on to be 
sassy (i.e., bad behavior); others are more reasonable/lax, and don't
consider it sassy unless it's very rude or disruptive.  This confusion in
definition may be what the problem is here.

One further note.  The beginning of this thread mentioned a book whose
author did not like SS because of the constantly changing environment.  They
apparently thought that the children would come to expect this, and it would
lower their attention span.  (I haven't read the book, so forgive me if I have
missed the point of the complaint.)   Just to add a data point (and get a 
chance to talk about my son) -- once Barney started coming out, it was no 
contest.  He likes Barney much better than SS.  If he's slow to get up in the
morning or from an afternoon nap, if you tell him "Barney's on", he'll 
bound out of bed to see it; SS does not get this response.  For those 
parents who haven't seen it, Barney is a half hour show that has 2 sets;
the indoor and outdoor of a school.  They don't leap from skit to skit, etc.
Yet it holds his enthralled attention easily.  I don't doubt that there are
some harmful affects from watching too much TV, or certain shows; but I
just don't see a loss of attention span in my son, who watches SS almost
daily.

-----------------------------------------------------
From Neal Smith (nsmith@sassy.micro.ti.com) [No, I'M not sassy, nor am I
an expert on "sassy", although if I'm an expert on some things, I guess 
right now I'm an expert "on" sassy, well now I'm just confused.]
Dad to Allen (allne if he spells it), born 1/10/90
From: janem@hpfcdc.fc.hp.com (Jane Marcus)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 16:09:31 GMT
Subject: Re: Re: PBS Improvements? (was RE: obnoxious PUBLIC television)
Organization: HP Fort Collins, Co.