Sesame Street to introduce HIV-positive Muppet

I saw this this morning. At first all I saw was the title of the article, which did not mention SA, and I was outraged. In this country, AIDS is not so common, it's not necessary to be talking to 2-5 years olds about it, but over there, in South Africa, it makes sense since so many have hte virus.
 
I don't know how to feel about it. Although HIV is large in SA, this is a kids show and is supposed to be about hope. Unless they have found a cure or vaccine for AIDS, I don't see how introducing such a fatal disease to a children's show would bring hope or be all that wise. A childrens show about HIV is good and educational, but to introduce it to a well known children's show, the muppets, I'm not sure I'm all for that.

I suppose in SA I'm not all that upset by that, disappointed in the decision, however. Over here, on the otherhand where HIV is not as widely spread as it is in SA, I would be more upset. I'm not one to hide such an important subject. I just think it needs a different introduction....like it's own show.
 
Originally posted by Lysithea
I don't know how to feel about it. Although HIV is large in SA, this is a kids show and is supposed to be about hope.
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I never saw Sesame Street as being about hope.
Even the show's creators have said in interview that the show is an educational forum that teaches children about tolerance and understanding of differences between people, such as race, physical abilities, and now physical illnesses. It teaches children to accept and embrace the differences that exist between different people.

I think it's the perfect forum for such a topic, however it depends on how it's presented to children. The creators of Sesame Street aren't stupid, and they know how to relate different topics to young children, as evidenced by the show's success and longevity.

Personally, I would love to see them introduce it in the US, because there's way too much seperation between people already. However, I just think adults in this country are way too closed-minded to allow such a thing to happen, which is sad, because the show is trying to teach open-mindedness to their children. Being so obtuse to openly discussing such topics is exactly the thing that's going to perpetuate the intolerance and closed-mindedness that the parents are teaching their children.

For an example of how closed-minded the majority of this country is, go back a few weeks to the story about Nickelodeon having a show about homosexuality... without even knowing what it was about, people wrote thousands of letters of complaint to Nikelodeon.

It's a very sad statement about the mindset that the majority of this country holds.
 
it did strike me as a bit odd at first, but imo, kids really do need to learn about this stuff and i think sesame street is a good forum for it.

aids is pretty much here to stay and probably the sooner they learn about it the better :) as long as they present it in a suitable way for young children, which i'm sure they would.
 
I'm with you, Spidey.

My first thought, on reading this, was "what the hell?". But the more I thought of it, the better I thought the idea was. It's the perfect forum for educating young children about HIV, so they won't grow up with the same ignorance of HIV-positive people that previous generations have had.
 
Originally posted by Learning To Fly
It's the perfect forum for educating young children about HIV, so they won't grow up with the same ignorance of HIV-positive people that previous generations have had.
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yar, the whole aids thing came out in the open in the early 80s when i was a young teen and people were really freaked out about it because they knew relatively nothing about the disease and how it was/was not spread, etc. like you said, it would be nice to avoid that w/future gens :)
 
hmm
i heard about this on the talk radio station yesterday

they were jokingly calling it Hivy
 
It makes me think about a girl in class talking about her internship at a hospital. It was heartbreaking to hear her repeat stories of children in the ward ask her "What is wrong with me? Am I going to die?" because their parents would not allow medical professionals to disclose to their OWN children that they have HIV. She, of course, was not authorized to explain to these children why they are taking several medications a day and some were not allowed to talk to "well" friends about being sick.

I think it's not a bad idea. I think Sesame Street is a show that educates and entertains kids tastefully.
 
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