The Wake

Coloring by Dane Thomforde

With the black tendrils of stress still lingering after weeks of dodging failing grades on papers and midterms, students look to the freedom of Spring Break to release some tension. Destinations are meticulously planned out months in advance as exhausted and overworked studiers search for the perfect place to blow off some steam. While you may have spent the last week tanning in Florida or scuba diving in Mexico, I was hanging out with the cool kids on Sesame Street.

While late nights and margaritas were destroying your brain cells, mine were being strengthened with the assistance of Elmo and crew at the Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street? exhibit in the Minnesota Children’s Museum. The interactive display moves viewers through the landmarks of Sesame Street with historical commentary, starting with the program’s commencement in 1969. Along the path are recognizable places to any aficionado, like Big Bird’s nest, the famous stoop outside address 123, and Oscar’s Newsstand.

The purpose behind Sesame Street is to provide educational television to young children in a method that would captivate them. How could a giant florescent yellow bird not capture attention? The exhibit achieves the same goals as the show by providing many opportunities for children to enhance their education and imaginations. Computer games assist kids in learning their numbers, colors and letters with the help and encouragement of their favorite pals. They can add and subtract with the silly pigeons on the telephone wire or count the animals hiding in the park with the Count. Literacy is a main component of the program, and the exhibit caters to that with a hands-on activity involving letter recognition in comparison to animals. Visitors are also quick to learn that Big Bird’s giant nest is the prime place to curl up with a good book.

Big Bird and friends teach the importance of compassion for cultural differences to the world’s youth. The cast of Sesame Street has always shown broad diversity, casting whites, blacks, Asians, and Latinos for their live action segments. In the exhibit, there is a television cube devoted to the human cast, which represents their diversity and family lineage. People can watch clips of their favorite cast members and view how they interact with one another. The muppets exhibited acceptance of differences when they introduced Big Bird, the only non-muppet puppet, who starred in the show in its beginnings.

The museum features a mini-theater that airs episodes of Sesame Street from different decades, highlighting the importance of diversity in the show. Whether it is country crooner Garth Brooks singing about how the opposite appearance of two muppets doesn’t stop them from being friends, or an all black hip-hop group proclaiming the importance of pride, Sesame Street teaches that differences are beneficial because people can learn from one another.

Besides racial diversity, Sesame Street devotes itself to helping children understand differences between each other physically, mentally, and emotionally. Implementing cast members who used sign language demonstrated to the youth that not everyone has the advantages of hearing. The exhibit reinforces this by implementing closed captions on all of its video clips. Throughout the years, many segments of
Sesame Street teaches that differences are beneficial because people can learn from one another.

Sesame Street has always been a leader in creativity, and this is also expressed in the exhibit. Several hands-on booths encourage imaginative thinking and experimenting. There is a mail station where children can color and write postcards to the producers, describing what they would like to see happen in future episodes. Kids also have the opportunity to correspond with their favorite muppets via telephone. By pressing a button, children can play a guessing game with Ernie or learn about the letter Z with Zoë. A few feet away is an area for puppet shows, giving children the opportunity to perform skits for their parents with puppets resembling their favorite residents of Sesame Street. The exhibit even allows kids to star and be onscreen in their own episode of Sesame Street, fulfilling dozens of dreams and aspirations in the process. With the assistance of chroma-key technology, children have the opportunity to test their foreign language skills with Rosita, the Hispanic muppet, apply mathematical thinking with the Count, and interact with the rest of the gang.

Along with Sesame Street’s dedication to stimulate young minds, the creators hope to paint a picture that can be applied to the real world. Characters in Sesame Street travel to different locales in several episodes. Trips to aquariums, modern art museums, and several Native American tribes spark both child and adult interest.

The museum provides historic links between the program and global events, which highlights the creators’ attempt to create a relationship between current events and the Sesame World. In 1968, Sesame Street began showing at Head Start programs across the country in attempts to fight Lyndon Johnson’s proposed War on Poverty. It can be inferred that the show was implemented to improve literacy and enhance education; making children more interested in school. It is unknown if this theory was the actual reason or whether or not it was successful, but studies done at the University of Kansas show that Sesame Street increases vocabulary and enhances knowledge of both literature and mathematics. The turn of the century caused mass technological advancements, and Sesame Street was not far behind the curve, educating children about computers in episodes that aired in 2000. This is paired nicely with the addition of CD-ROMs to the marketplace of Sesame Street merchandise, which already included books and housewares.

Similar to the show, the exhibit caters to an adult audience as well. There are tips on how to encourage children and ideas for fun and educational games. The older generation will appreciate viewing historic pictures and memorabilia from their own childhood experiences with the gang of muppets, proving that no one is ever too old to kick back with an episode of Sesame Street. Music is an awesome reminiscent, and the Sesame Street classics “It Isn’t Easy Being Green” and “Rubber Duckie,” paired with the original theme song, are all available at the push of a button. There is a lot of unknown trivia about the show featured in the exhibit that may be interesting to nostalgic fans. For instance, did you know that Big Bird is not a universal character, but may take the form of a big parrot, turtle, camel, or a massive hedgehog depending on the region?

By now I’m sure you wish you would have partied with a furry blue monster who devours cookies instead of going on your trip to Cabo. Well, you are in luck…the exhibit will continue singing and educating through April 27th at the Minnesota Children’s Museum in downtown St. Paul, so you have plenty of time to catch up with the gang. Now the only thing you have to regret about spring break are those severely embarrassing pictures.