ok… It seems to me that everyone did, in fact, miss the point, and it feels like it set off a string of attacks in my direction. HIV and Seasame Street… Yes, puppets are asexual… I know that… my point was entirely missed… I’m not even sure people got as far as to read my point, so let me just repost it here… “the way to teach children NOT to be prejudice is NOT to go and make a big deal about how “different” and “special” some group of people are”. I even restated it here “Kids are tought to make that distinction, they’re not born with it.”

So now let me discuss my point. Let’s use another seasame street example… anyone remember this song/game? “Three of these things are just like the others, three of the things are almost the same. One of these things is not like the others. Now it’s time to play our game, it’s time to play our game.” Now most of the time in this game, you see four kids in four corners… Three of them are playing games like football, soccer, and basketball, and the fourth one is decked out in a poncho, holding an umbrella. Now why is this such a big game for kids this age? Simple, they haven’t learned to isolate differences yet. Now, what if you stuck three white kids and one black kid in those squares? Now you begin to teach children that “one of these things is not like the others” and that black kids are different from white kids… a concept completely foreign to that child. (barring parental intervention, which I will address shortly). So now lets take four white kids, but give one of them a sign that says “HIV”… Now what does that say about that kid? Now maybe we begin to see my point… maybe not, because as someone so kindly pointed out “people are …. stupid”.

Now, the problem comes in with parents. Parents are the ones who teach kids to be paranoid about what they don’t understand… yes, kids will fear what they don’t understand, but complete ignorance is not fear… complete ignorance is bliss.. A 4-year old will never understand, so why scare him? When they become mature enough to understand, then enlighten them… That’s where the sex ed comment came from. Children that young will never understand, so why try to teach them about it? It was all on an episode of Southpark… Anyway, that’s what parents should be doing… Problem is, parents are stupid… parents are uninformed and stubborn… they relay their stupidness to their children, who, not understanding, fear…

In short, yes, I understand in some parts of the world it is more important to force an understanding of mature issues on children to young to understand them… However, by attempting that, you send more signals to an impressionable child than you mean to, and you stand a good chance of getting it wrong. (“this different unique person is no different than you”… confused? what if you were 3?) Things of this nature should be dealt with on a child by child basis and should not be covered by blanket education from mass media. The ultimate burden is laid upon the parents. Lets face it, if a child is being raised correctly, anyways, a parent should have far more influence on a child than any tv character.

That’s my little perfect world… if you don’t like it, find your own…