Good Old Boob Tube

I remember watching the boob tube way back when I was three or four. Watching Saturday cartoons was a ritual, I guess for most children. TV have reached beyond just good entertainment, it made an impact on my life. The three most important television programs that I believe were ever created were "Sesame Street", "Mister Rogers", and "Reading Rainbow", all made possible by PBS.

I started preschool when I was four, and thank goodness for Sesame Street, otherwise, I would have been that foreign kid that didn’t know a lick of English because my parents only spoke Vietnamese (Even though I came to the States at one). Sesame Street teaches things like the alphabet and numbers with a big giant yellow bird, to the green man who lived in the garbage can (Were they trying to expose kids to the homeless?), along with the rest of the ambiguous animals/creatures gang.




The late Mister Rogers was important because he taught you morals and socially acceptable behavior. My friend’s 5 year old niece was suspended from kindergarten! Kindergarten, for gosh sakes. If I were her parents made her watch Mister Rogers she’d learned not the bite people. I bet there’s an episode where it teaches you not to do bodily harm to someone.




"Reading Rainbow" got me into reading books. It would read the stories and use the illustrations from the book to engage the viewers. After watching an episode, I would go to the library on the weekends and checked out that book. "Reading Rainbow" is important because I believe it promotes literacy.



A show importance depends on the individual but I believe these shows were important to me and other children because they were educational. They help children and with literacy, help develop an idea of how to act in society.