Editing Sesame Street (section)

==Educational goals==
{{Main|Educational goals of Sesame Street{{!}}Educational goals of ''Sesame Street''}}
[[File:BlogHer 08 - Sesame Street Suite (2682321763).jpg|thumb|right|200px|The ''Sesame Street'' signpost]]
Author [[Malcolm Gladwell]] said that "''Sesame Street'' was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them."<ref>Gladwell, p. 100</ref> [[Gerald S. Lesser]], the CTW's first advisory board chair, went even further, saying that the effective use of television as an educational tool needed to capture, focus, and sustain children's attention.<ref name="Lesser, p. 116">Lesser, p. 116</ref> ''Sesame Street'' was the first children's show to structure each episode, and the segments within them, to capture children's attention, and to make, as Gladwell put it, "small but critical adjustments" to keep it.<ref>Gladwell, p. 91</ref> According to CTW researchers Rosemarie Truglio and Shalom Fisch, it was one of the few children's shows to utilize a detailed and comprehensive educational curriculum, garnered from [[formative assessment|formative]] and [[summative]] research.<ref>{{cite book | last = Fisch | first = Shalom M. | author2 = Rosemarie T. Truglio |editor= Shalom M. Fisch |editor2=Rosemarie T. Truglio | title = "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street | url = https://archive.org/details/gisforgrowingthi00shal | url-access = registration | publisher = Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers | year = 2001 | location = Mahweh, New Jersey | page = [https://archive.org/details/gisforgrowingthi00shal/page/234 234] | isbn = 0-8058-3395-1 | chapter = Why Children Learn from Sesame Street}}</ref>

''Sesame Street''<nowiki/>'s creators and researchers formulated both [[cognition|cognitive]] and [[affect (psychology)|affective]] goals for the show. They initially focused on cognitive goals, while addressing affective goals indirectly, believing it would increase children's self-esteem and feelings of competency.<ref>Morrow, pp. 76, 106</ref> One of their primary goals was preparing young children for school, especially children from [[poverty|low-income]] families,<ref>Lesser, p. 46</ref> using [[modeling (psychology)|modeling]],<ref>Lesser, pp. 86–87</ref> repetition,<ref>Lesser, p. 107</ref> and humor.<ref name="Lesser, p. 116"/> They adjusted its content to increase viewers' attention and the show's appeal,<ref>Lesser, p. 87</ref> and encouraged older children and parents to "co-view" it by including more sophisticated humor, cultural references, and celebrity guests; by 2019, 80% of parents watched ''Sesame Street'' with their children, and 650 celebrities had appeared on the show.<ref name="wallace">{{cite news |last1=Wallace |first1=Debra |title=Big Bird Has 4,000 Feathers: 21 Fun Facts About Sesame Street That Will Blow Your Mind |url=https://parade.com/840056/debrawallace/big-bird-has-4000-feathers-21-things-about-sesame-street-that-will-blow-your-mind/ |access-date=April 11, 2019 |work=Parade |date=February 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2022-08-13|title='Sesame Street' Draws in Adults with Pop Culture Parodies|url=http://yahoo.com/entertainment/news/sesame-street-draws-adults-pop-culture-parodies-180008072.html|website=yahoo.com|date=October 30, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Rosemarie T.|last1=Truglio|first2=Jennifer A.|last2=Kotler|chapter=Language, Literacy, and Media: What's the Word on Sesame Street?|pages=188–202|chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/12113/chapter/161496302|year=2013|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199943913.003.0012|title=Societal Contexts of Child Development: Pathways of Influence and Implications for Practice and Policy|editor1=Gershoff, E. T.|editor2=Mistry, R. S.|editor3=Crosby, D. A.}}</ref>

[[File:Barbara Bush and Big Bird.jpg|thumb|left|240px|First Lady [[Barbara Bush]] participates with [[Big Bird]] in an educational taping of ''Sesame Street'' at United Studios, 1989]]
[[File:Big Bird and Michelle Obama (8555066920).jpg|thumb|left|240px|First Lady [[Michelle Obama]] participates in a ''[[Let's Move!]]'' and ''Sesame Street'' public service announcement taping with [[Big Bird]] in the White House Kitchen, 2013]]
[[File:Deputy Secretary Blinken Meets With Sesame Street's "Grover" (29713891601).jpg|thumb|240px|Deputy Secretary of State [[Antony Blinken]] meets [[Grover]] to discuss refugees at the United Nations in New York City, 2016]]
During ''Sesame Street''{{'}}s first season, some critics felt that it should address more overtly such affective goals as social competence, tolerance of [[cultural diversity|diversity]], and nonaggressive ways of resolving conflict. The show's creators and producers responded by featuring these themes in interpersonal disputes between its Street characters.<ref>{{cite book | last = Huston | first = Aletha C |author2=Daniel R. Anderson |author3=John C. Wright |author4=Deborah Linebarger |author5=Kelly L. Schmidt  |editor= Shalom M. Fisch |editor2=Rosemarie T. Truglio | title = "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street | url = https://archive.org/details/gisforgrowingthi00shal | url-access = registration | publisher = Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers | year = 2001 | location = Mahweh, New Jersey | page = [https://archive.org/details/gisforgrowingthi00shal/page/133 133] | isbn = 0-8058-3395-1 | chapter = "''Sesame Street'' Viewers as Adolescents: The Recontact Study}}</ref> During the 1980s, the show incorporated real-life experiences of its cast and crew, including the death of [[Will Lee]] ([[Mr. Hooper]]) and the pregnancy of [[Sonia Manzano]] (Maria).<ref name="hellman-52"/> In later seasons, it addressed real-life disasters such as the [[September 11 attacks|September 11 terrorist attacks]] and [[Hurricane Katrina]].<ref>Gikow, p. 165</ref>

In its first season, the show addressed its outreach goals by focusing on the promotion of educational materials used in preschool settings; and in subsequent seasons, by focusing on their development. Innovative programs were developed because their target audience, children and their families in low-income, inner-city homes, did not traditionally watch educational programs on television and because traditional methods of promotion and advertising were not effective with these groups.<ref>Gikow, p. 181</ref>

Starting in 2006, the Workshop expanded its outreach by creating a series of PBS specials and DVDs focusing on how military deployment affects the families of servicepeople.<ref>Gikow, pp. 280–281</ref> Its outreach efforts also focused on families of prisoners, health and wellness, and safety.<ref>Gikow, pp. 286–293</ref> In 2013, SW started Sesame Street in Communities, to help families dealing with difficult issues.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chandler |first1=Michael Alison |title=Sesame Street launches tools to help children who experience trauma, from hurricanes to violence at home |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/10/07/sesame-street-launches-tools-to-teach-coping-skills-to-children-who-experience-trauma-of-all-kinds-from-natural-disasters-to-violence-at-home/ |access-date=27 June 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=6 October 2017}}</ref>