Children's Television Impact: Global Thoughts on Public Television

Curator's Note

Education is the transmission of knowledge, skills, and character traits that comes in formal and informal forms. Transmission of ideas categorized as formal and informal can be divided into segments defining early childhood education, primary education, secondary education, and tertiary education.

Early childhood education focuses on teacher-centered and student-centered methods. Early childhood education topics often become more attractive and enjoyable when educators use the media or act on television approach like those found in public television, globally, based on the work of Children’s Television Workshop and Sesame Workshop. For example, in Kenya, we have Akili Kids Television, Makutano Junction, and other online Sesame YouTube, e.g., Gracie’s Corner.

Ample education is found in stories, songs, dances, and diagrams/images for mathematics, language, science, arts, sports, and dance skills. Programming builds different abilities to kids in their learnings like:

  • Enhance language and communication skills as this inspire them to take up challenges and resolve them; they get exposed to a range of linguistic patterns, accents, and attitudes through cartoons, which helps them develop used to many forms of communication.
  • Fostering emotional development through these emotional narratives and cartoons teaches children empathy, resilience, and the importance of emotional intelligence.

Children learn to recognize and empathize with the characters’ emotions, developing a deeper understanding of their own and others’ feelings. These shows offer entertainment and relaxation as the programming establishes a known art style that appeals to children’s minds. This method is a powerful educational tool because it uses both words and pictures. Promoting cultural awareness helps them gain exposure to different languages, traditions, and customs, fostering a sense of curiosity and cultural sensitivity. It also sparks imagination in children as they try to imagine their lives just like cartoons, e.g., they start imagining castles, kingdoms, magic, and flying. These shows prove that the child has an opportunity for early development as they have begun to imagine concepts.

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