SESAME 
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Download NowSesame Street’s Muppets Win Hearts All over the World
Because children love them and parents trust them, these furry monsters can help bridge divides between people and make the world a better place
In the 40 years since it was founded, Sesame Street has been the single largest informal educator of children—not just in the US, but around the world. Sesame Workshop creates locally produced media to help children develop their prospects while striving to bridge educational, socioeconomic and cultural gaps.
| Shari Rosenfeld, Gary Knell & Lucy Nusseibeh in Ramallah |
“We have a presence in 140 countries around the world,” Knell explains, “and in about two dozen of these, we are actively participating with local partners to produce local versions of Sesame Street. Each of these has a specific curricular focus that embodies the wishes of the in-country audience—we are working in ‘advanced economy’ nations like Germany, Japan, and Spain, but we’re also working in developing countries like Nigeria, Palestine, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.”
Knell has also been speaking about the “Muppet Diplomacy” the nonprofit engages in, such as the work it does in the Middle East.
AN EFFECTIVE DIPLOMATIC TOOL
“‘Muppet Diplomacy’ is an idea that was first described by the Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at USC years ago,” he explains. “Muppet Diplomacy is a very effective version of public diplomacy. You can look at the billboards currently on display throughout Amman in Jordan; or our work in South Africa with Kami, the HIV-positive Muppet on Takalani Sesame, who is helping kids deal with stigmatization; or our work in Mexico where we encourage healthy habits through the Muppets of Plaza Sesamo—any of these things are effective tools to help parents and caregivers deal with issues that are critical to the local population. Sesame Street’s work has been effective in encouraging respect and understanding, and I think that’s where the term ‘Muppet Diplomacy’ comes from.”
In the latter half of October this year, Knell participated in the 2009 Israeli Presidential Conference in a session called, “Does the education system need re-educating?” The conference had an all-star cast: from Jose Maria Aznar, a former Prime Minister of Spain, to Tony Blair, Susan Rice and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
Knell also gave a press conference, joined by Sivan, a wheelchair-bound Muppet who is debuting on Rechov Sumsum in December 2009, and Moishe Oofnik, the grouchy Israeli cousin of Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch, during which he discussed the educational programs Sesame Workshop has implemented in recent years around the globe.
“I was in Israel speaking at President Shimon Peres’s presidential conference,” he says, “and we had meetings with the Minister of Education and other high-level individuals in Israel to promote and get their support behind Rechov Sumsum, which is the Israeli version of Sesame Street and which promotes an experience of the diverse ethnicities, religious and secular people, and geography in Israel.”
While in the Middle East, Knell also visited Palestine to join the Palestinian Prime Minister and Minister of Education, and USAID officials for an event to mark the start of studio production for a new season of Shara’a Simsim, the Palestinian version of Sesame Street.
In the latter half of October this year, Knell participated in the 2009 Israeli Presidential Conference in a session called, “Does the education system need re-educating?” The conference had an all-star cast: from Jose Maria Aznar, a former Prime Minister of Spain, to Tony Blair, Susan Rice and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
Knell also gave a press conference, joined by Sivan, a wheelchair-bound Muppet who is debuting on Rechov Sumsum in December 2009, and Moishe Oofnik, the grouchy Israeli cousin of Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch, during which he discussed the educational programs Sesame Workshop has implemented in recent years around the globe.
“I was in Israel speaking at President Shimon Peres’s presidential conference,” he says, “and we had meetings with the Minister of Education and other high-level individuals in Israel to promote and get their support behind Rechov Sumsum, which is the Israeli version of Sesame Street and which promotes an experience of the diverse ethnicities, religious and secular people, and geography in Israel.”
While in the Middle East, Knell also visited Palestine to join the Palestinian Prime Minister and Minister of Education, and USAID officials for an event to mark the start of studio production for a new season of Shara’a Simsim, the Palestinian version of Sesame Street.
HELPING TO CROSS DIFFICULT BOUNDARIES
“We can cross boundaries that not many others are able to cross,” Knell says. “For example, in Palestine, we focus on both issues around peaceful conflict resolution and basic literacy messages, and the needs of these two areas [Israel and Palestine] are somewhat different. Yet, we can make an important educational intervention in both—we can play a role in enabling education that we think will contribute to a better region and a better world.”
In November, Knell was in Doha, where he spoke at the Qatar Foundation’s first World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). WISE is a global event that aims to create a new international multidisciplinary platform to shape the education models of the 21st century. At this event, the focus was on a theme called “Global education: Working together for sustainable achievements.”
Knell participated in a session called, “Innovation: Technology and e-learning,” which looked at the impact of multimedia in stimulating awareness and technological tools to synthesize and utilize knowledge.
“The government of Qatar was convening leaders from around the world, and I was there to represent how media can have a significant impact on young children. Qatar is developing a strategy for educational development in the Arab world,” he says. “At the conference, over 1,000 people gathered from 50 countries. This was really an impressive collection of what we call ‘doers.’ They were not speechmakers or politicians.
“I was on a panel to promote the use of media in education with people such as the head of international education for the Asia Society, and several people from other countries talking about using mobile technology for education in the developing world. The goal was to encourage experts to interact and build some consensus around important priorities that the government of Qatar would be able to take forward. Qatar is positioning itself as an educational hub in the region, and they’ve opened several satellite campuses of major universities like Carnegie-Mellon and Texas A&M and Georgetown.”
In November, Knell was in Doha, where he spoke at the Qatar Foundation’s first World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). WISE is a global event that aims to create a new international multidisciplinary platform to shape the education models of the 21st century. At this event, the focus was on a theme called “Global education: Working together for sustainable achievements.”
Knell participated in a session called, “Innovation: Technology and e-learning,” which looked at the impact of multimedia in stimulating awareness and technological tools to synthesize and utilize knowledge.
“The government of Qatar was convening leaders from around the world, and I was there to represent how media can have a significant impact on young children. Qatar is developing a strategy for educational development in the Arab world,” he says. “At the conference, over 1,000 people gathered from 50 countries. This was really an impressive collection of what we call ‘doers.’ They were not speechmakers or politicians.
“I was on a panel to promote the use of media in education with people such as the head of international education for the Asia Society, and several people from other countries talking about using mobile technology for education in the developing world. The goal was to encourage experts to interact and build some consensus around important priorities that the government of Qatar would be able to take forward. Qatar is positioning itself as an educational hub in the region, and they’ve opened several satellite campuses of major universities like Carnegie-Mellon and Texas A&M and Georgetown.”
HELPING TO RESOLVE POLITICAL CONFLICT
The second series of Sesame Tree, which debuted in Northern Ireland in March 2008 and was then picked up by CBeebies (the BBC’s children’s channel), will foster cooperation and sharing among Northern Ireland’s children.
“I’m looking at a letter from Gerry Adams, the head of Sinn Fein, right now,” Knell says. He reads, “‘I wish you well with the Sesame Street project and all your work. If there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to contact me.’ And ‘P.S.: Thanks for the Cookie Monster.’
“That kind of says it all. The project was something I wanted to do for a long time. It spun off the Israeli–Palestinian work that we did in the late ‘90s. I felt that we had hit on an idea to use the show to promote conflict resolution, or helping societies that are coming out of conflict merge their interests for a shared future. I felt that we could really help the children of Northern Ireland with issues such as sharing, respecting difference, trying new experiences and learning about new people. That’s what Sesame Street is able to do in the privacy of one’s living room, where a parent who may never say a good thing about the ‘other’ in public encourages a child to watch something that helps de-emotionalize frustrations and tensions that have existed for decades. I’m very proud of this project.”
Knell explains that although Sesame Workshop has been expanding its digital outreach in the US, it remains a challenge—and a Workshop mission—to reach people in developing countries in a similar way.
“In the developing world,” he says, “many children are not even in school, or they drop out of school at an early age. In India, most girls drop out of school after the second year. So how do you find a way to use technology to leapfrog over some of the gaps in formal education? A lot of people are now looking especially at mobile-phone technology as a way of getting these important educational messages across. We’re focusing a lot of our efforts in both places—in the developing world as well as in advanced economies—but you have to think about them in slightly different spheres. And that’s what we’re going to be doing in the next decade at Sesame Workshop.”
“I’m looking at a letter from Gerry Adams, the head of Sinn Fein, right now,” Knell says. He reads, “‘I wish you well with the Sesame Street project and all your work. If there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to contact me.’ And ‘P.S.: Thanks for the Cookie Monster.’
“That kind of says it all. The project was something I wanted to do for a long time. It spun off the Israeli–Palestinian work that we did in the late ‘90s. I felt that we had hit on an idea to use the show to promote conflict resolution, or helping societies that are coming out of conflict merge their interests for a shared future. I felt that we could really help the children of Northern Ireland with issues such as sharing, respecting difference, trying new experiences and learning about new people. That’s what Sesame Street is able to do in the privacy of one’s living room, where a parent who may never say a good thing about the ‘other’ in public encourages a child to watch something that helps de-emotionalize frustrations and tensions that have existed for decades. I’m very proud of this project.”
Knell explains that although Sesame Workshop has been expanding its digital outreach in the US, it remains a challenge—and a Workshop mission—to reach people in developing countries in a similar way.
“In the developing world,” he says, “many children are not even in school, or they drop out of school at an early age. In India, most girls drop out of school after the second year. So how do you find a way to use technology to leapfrog over some of the gaps in formal education? A lot of people are now looking especially at mobile-phone technology as a way of getting these important educational messages across. We’re focusing a lot of our efforts in both places—in the developing world as well as in advanced economies—but you have to think about them in slightly different spheres. And that’s what we’re going to be doing in the next decade at Sesame Workshop.”