#(i did see sherri stoner as story editor which was painful)

[fictionadventurer]

I am developing some theories as to what qualities make for good and bad children's educational television. (At least when it comes to shows that try to weave the educational material into the story.)

Good children's television is timeless. Technology or current events can be part of the story, but should not be the focus of it. The technology should be there to facilitate a story that's actually about a timeless lesson that can apply to children in any time period.

Bad children's television is timely or trendy. It makes learning about the new technology or trends the focus of the story. This makes for clunky storytelling that applies only to a narrow set of circumstances and becomes very quickly dated.

Good children's television puts story first. The story needs to come from character and be entertaining, and the educational content should flow naturally from that story.

Bad children's television thinks the educational material is the story. It preaches the information to the children so that it becomes adults giving information to children rather than adults engaging with children on their level.

Good children's television lets the child characters learn lessons for themselves. Adults can provide inspiration or help, but the children should take initiative for their own discoveries and come to conclusions based on their experiences.

Bad children's television has the adults tell the children all the lessons and information they should learn. The children are only there as stand-ins for an audience that the writer wants to preach this information to and passively absorb the lessons rather than taking an active role in their own story.

#yes this is about arthur and curious george #i have examples of all of these from both shows but i have refrained out of compassion toward you #joe fallon's involvement explains the excellent early seasons of both #i could tell there'd been a regime change later on in curious george #and when i saw peter hirsch credited as head writer after an inferior episode everything made sense #unfair that he should get to ruin two good shows #(to be fair some of the most painful later curious george eps were ones that i didn't see his name involved with) #(i did see sherri stoner as story editor which was painful) #(slappy squirrel i thought you were better than this) #but whoever's involved the principles are true and seeing the same thing happen in both shows makes it very obvious #arthur #curious george