From: kibo@world.std.com (James "Kibo" Parry)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.kibology
Subject: Mr. Rogers memories
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 06:29:14 -0500


I wanted to say how much I liked Mr. Rogers (who died this morning), but I
don't have time to say everything good about him that I want to, so instead
I'll only say the single bad thing I can say about him, and then you can
just assume he was perfect in all other ways.

He once endorsed a set of little bath soaps shaped like brightly-colored
sea life (fishies, sea horses, etc.)  He plugged them on TV and they came
in a plastic box with form-fitting spaces for each of the ten or so soaps.

On TV, when he took one out of the box, there was another identical one
behind it.  When my mother bought me a set at the local supermarket,
guess how many layers there actually were.  That's right, Mr. Rogers
taught me that Piaget's concept of object permanence was a sham, and if
you can't see what's behind something, it means there is nothing behind 
it.

(And that's why I have never bathed again.)

But other than that he was a great guy.  His show taught kids three things.
(1)  He told kids that they were special and people cared about them.
(2)  He encouraged kids to play creatively and fantasize.  And most
importantly, the primary focus of the show was (3) learning about feelings.
He didn't teach about "manners" or that other charm-school stuff.  He didn't
teach facts.  He simply presented little psychodramas where puppets would
act out everyday situations and little prince Tuesday would feel angry
or sad or guilty and Mr. Rogers would talk about feelings to help kids
understand why they felt the way they did.  Absolutely nobody else taught
emotional well-being to kids -- there were lots of other shows that taught
a mixture of facts and counting and "always say please" and "always share
everything, all the time" and "always be nice to everyone, even the
bullies" while Mr. Rogers deal with actual emotional situations in a
very careful, thoughtful manner.  He respected the kids to an incredible
degree, talking directly to them, so that they could feel they were
conversing with him, because he had amazing intuition as to what kids
wanted to know about and what they needed reassurance about.

I've always liked that he tried hard not to make the production values
of the show very slick, in order to encourage kids to use their imagination.
The fantasy characters in The Land Of Make-Believe were just his
"neighbors" in different costumes, and he would occasionally point that
out.  He worked crude little hand puppets which didn't look "alive" the
way the Muppets do, but that wasn't the goal.  And every once in a while,
instead of acting out the fantasy with the puppets and the full-size
castle set, he'd set a little version of the same castle (made from an
oatmeal box) on a card table in his kitchen and talk about what they
would pretend that day.

(Although, even as a child, it bothered me that there was a traffic light
in the middle of the "real" part of his living room for no apparent 
reason.)

Mr. Rogers was one of those people you just couldn't imagine EVER
getting angry or saying a naughty word, and yet he was clearly a fun
guy, who knew how to make people smile, who had a wild imagination,
and who was interested in finding out how tofu or trombones were made.
And as a kid, you knew that every day he'd come to that special living
room with the little trolley going through it, he'd talk to you for
half an hour, and then he'd go back to wherever he went the other
23.5 hours or his day, but he'd always remind you that he'd come back.

Sure, Captain Kangaroo was (and is) a nice guy.  And sure, the original
"Sesame Street" had a brilliant wit and style.  But absolutely nobody
could make kids as happy as Mr. Rogers.  On the other shows people tuned
in to see the comedy sketches with the wacky puppets.  On Mr. Rogers's
show, _he_ was the main reason to watch.  Other shows were like school.
Mr. Rogers's show was about having friends.

And of course almost all other children's TV is worthless toy commercials.
We need more TV shows that are nice to kids, as opposed to stuff that
consists of twenty minutes of shooting at terrorists and then thirty
seconds of platitudes.  ("Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat!  Always share!")

I could go on quite a while about why Mr. Rogers had the greatest
children's TV show ever, but you get the idea.  And I forgive him
for there not being anything behind the soap.

                                        -- K.

                                           BOOMERANG!  TOOMERANG!  ZOOMERANG!

"Of course, I get angry. Of course, I get sad. I have a full range of emotions. I also have a whole smorgasbord of ways of dealing with my feelings. That is what we should give children. Give them ... ways to express their rage without hurting themselves or somebody else. That's what the world needs."

Fred Rogers (March 20, 1928 - February 27, 2003)
Presbyterian minister and children's television icon.

[13:29] cptgen: no, she's probably ensconsced in crafting or perfing middies
[13:29] BDHampel: oh good god, they've converted you, haven't they?
[13:29] cptgen: thats my best hack at the DAoC lingo :-P
[13:30] cptgen: I have no idea what I just said