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Churches Learn Lesson on "Sesame Street"

Diocesan Press Service. July 1, 1971 [94-6]

Dr. Edward L. Palmer, Vice President and Director of Research at the Children's Television Workshop, released research findings recently which indicate that four denominations learned a thing or two on "Sesame Street." Dr. Palmer's research department fed a series of thirty second "commercials" on "Sharing" along with a wide variety of children's viewing material into their testing process in order to measure their attention getting power. Pitted against everything from "Alphabet Commercials" to "Fat Albert" and "Bugs Bunny" the "Sharing Commercials" came out at the top of the list.

The "Sharing Commercials" were produced jointly by the Christian Church (Disciples), Episcopal Church, United Methodist and United Church of Christ. They are being shown as a public service on 290 commercial U.S. Stations and the ABC and NBC Networks and on the Group "W" Stations.

In one "spot" a fussy mother hen watches two children feed the animals in the barnyard. "It's nice to share," she cackles. The children sing, "Oh, that's the way it is trooly ooly ooly is." But wait a minute -- no one is feeding the hen! "It's nice to share," she states frantically hoping someone will get the point. They do and a whole bag of feed is shared with our hostess as she exclaims, "When someone shares with me, I feel glad. Oh, that's the way it is trooly, ooly ooly is . . . so what you gonna do today?" The hen retorts, "I think I'll share," and proceeds to lay a nest full of eggs. A flutter of her wings and the eggs bear the names of the sponsoring churches.

In other spots, children share balloons, a kaleidoscope and a skate board.

In reporting on the research Dr. Palmer explained that visual attention is measured in a controlled situation with the aid of a distractor. A group of small children are placed informally before a television screen. To one side a distractor, the size of a TV screen, flashes slides which change every 7.5 seconds. Continuous observation of each child is made during the viewing session and the percent of visual attention is calculated. The technique enables the Children's Television Workshop to measure the effectiveness of material used on Sesame Street. (Complete reports are available through Miss Sonia Francis, Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, New York 10017; (212) 867-8400.)

Dr. James Bryan, Associate Professor and Research Psychologist at Northwestern University, has viewed them, and in his opinion they should be "quite effective." Dr. Bryan has spent the last six years conducting research on what motivates children toward altruistic behaviour.

The cooperation between the Churches and "Sesame Street" began when the Children's Television Workshop was just beginning in 1968. The Reverend Robert M. G. Libby, at that time Director of Radio and Television for the Episcopal Church, asked Mrs. Joan Cooney, Director of CTW, if research indicated whether children could be taught moral and ethical values, as well as numbers and letters, through the commercial television technique. Members of her staff indicated that children have a need to learn and are capable of learning that other human beings have parallel needs. That sounded like the Golden Rule to Father Libby and he and writer-producer, Hamilton Wright, Jr., of Combined Cinegraphics, Phoenix, Arizona, began work on the "Spots. " Mrs. Cooney offered the advice and counsel of her staff in the project and Dr. Palmer offered to test the final product. Also giving industry advice was Mr. George Heineman, Vice President for Children's Programming at NBC.

(Enclosed is a glossy print illustrating the "spot" of the mother hen and the children.)

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