The Trouble with PBS

When the thorny subject of television comes up, that is how much and what type of television I allow my children to watch, it is often assumed that I only allow my kids to watch programs on PBS. My kids aren't interested in Sesame Street- they are Elmo impervious, so that's not an option.

The truth is that I don't like most of the PBS programs. Everything has a message- that is true with most kids' programming from what I can tell, but the messages that I often encounter on the PBS programs are messages I don't agree with. The episodes are too watered-down, too politically correct, too sissified I guess. When I explain this, I am met with raised eyebrows.

We just came back from vacation. Normally, I let the kids watch a couple of programs on Noggin or Discovery Kids but neither channel was available, so we watched a little PBS while we were there. I took note of one of the episodes so that I could give an example of what kind of message I take issue with.

The episode was a re-make of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

The original goes something like this: A boy is charged with watching the prized sheep for a village in the mountains. He is lonely and bored with this task and at one point calls out that there is a wolf threatening the flock. The villagers all come running to help and discover that there is no wolf. The boy is chastised, but the excitement has given him some relief to the boredom. Despite his instructions to not "cry wolf," he does so again, purely for his own amusement. The villagers again come. The boy is again warned. The third time he cries "wolf" there really is a wolf, but the villagers do not believe him. The wolf decimates the flock of sheep. The message is that the alarm should have only been sounded when the threat was actual; sometimes one has to put the needs of the village above one's own amusement.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this story. I think the message is an important one. (And yes, I understand that the wolf is probably unfairly villianized in the original version.)

The PBS program version goes like this.

A boy makes friends with a wolf. He cries "wolf" so that the townsfolk can come and meet his new friend. The wolf has gone off to the bathroom when the townsfolk come. The townsfolk leave before the wolf returns. The boy and the wolf throw a party for the townsfolk so that they can meet the wolf. When the townsfolk arrive the wolf has gone off to retrieve a ball and so the townsfolk don't believe the boy that there really is a wolf. The boy tells the townsfolk that it "makes him feel bad that the people don't believe him. It hurts his feelings and they should trust him." The townsfolk agree and await the return of the wolf. The wolf returns and they all have a party. The townsfolk apologize to the boy for not believing him and hurting his feelings.

In the PBS version we were supposed to find the "super word" from the story. The word had 5 letters, among them were T R U _ _. I was convinced that the "super word" was going to be T R U T H because it was so important to tell the truth. I was wrong- the "super word" was T R U S T because the townsfolk should have trusted the boy.

The program that followed had the message that if you should be unfortunate enough to win some kind of physical challenge such as a race or contest of strength your first thought should not be one of personal pride, but rather of how to make the losers of the contest feel better about themselves. There was even a song to help drive this message home.

Not all of the programs are as offensive to me as the two highlighted above, but there is enough of that type of programming that I am disinclined to turn on PBS for my kids to watch. My kids watch the programs that I can deal with. If it's too annoying for me, they don't get to watch it.

They don't watch what I consider to be a lot of television, but I do use it as a tool to change moods or distract or to give myself a break during the day. I truly wish there was better programing out there for the kids. I don't find it on PBS. Life is hard and you don't always get to win. Sometimes you have to do things that are boring, difficult or painful. Not everyone will be nice all of the time. I give my kids a lot of positive reinforcement, but I don't think that I'd be doing them any favors if I set themselves up to believe that life was going to be rainbows and ponies all the time.

That's my trouble with PBS.