I generally don’t post to support major national organizations – they can do fine without me. But my experience with PBS was exactly this quote above. I so hope people can see the difference in shows on PBS and PBS KIDS than so many other companies offering media aimed at children.
Because my first television show writing experience was for Molly of Denali I only learned after writing for other shows the truly unique experience I was getting with both a PBS show, and a show with Indigenous people in leadership roles.
I’ve spoken before about the Indigenous side, but I don’t know how
much I’ve spoken about what the difference with PBS is. And it is a HUGE difference.
I worked much harder for Molly scripts, by design, than anything else, because the educational “requirement” was at every level. My goal – and so many others who worked on this show – was to ensure children got a good story. The stories do come first, and that in itself is part of the education for children. They need and deserve fiction and wonder and art. But educational consultants, resources, and reminders are in every step of the process. EVERY step, and it’s not a passive process. PBS and GBH even have studies done to see if the educational parts of the show are actually having the correct positive impact on children’s learning (spoiler alert – they do.)
When I first started writing for Molly I was really impacted by the Mr. Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Mr. Rogers believed television was in incredibly powerful tool to reach children – but also that it was a great responsibility to carry as well (Uncle Ben’s famous Spider-Man quote seems to shout itself here.)
And that’s what I experienced through PBS / PBS KIDS and GBH. They take the responsibility for teaching our next generations so seriously, and pour an enormous amount of their resources into the educational work for the program. And they have so much less resources to work with versus big for-profit media giants who are NOT focusing on education, but a central part education remains nonetheless.
In fact, my very first episode the feedback I was getting was that my educational inclusions were too easy/simple for the instructional goals of the program. It would be very easy to slap on what looks like education to get the shows produced more quickly. But I was challenged to challenge children in these stories. Really get their minds critically thinking.
I used to be a Head Start teacher and helped develop cultural curriculum for Native kids, and we actually used so many of the same resources I used back then – and then PBS and GBH developed more. I would have LOVED it if Molly had existed back then, and I’m so proud it exists – and I was a part of it – now.
Public media is having a catastrophically bad time right now. I hope the conversation at an administration/congressional level can become more than just who likes NPR or not.
I don’t know if the government can shift priorities, but I do know there are many more of us who see that value in what public media offers than those who don’t.
I mean, of course we do. We were raised on PBS.