Got turned on to this via a twit from my pal Mitch. The Youtube video is Mr Rogers‘ talk with a US Senate sub-committee, in a meeting chaired by the notoriously “cold” Senator John Pastori, on May 1, 1969. It is worth watching the full 6 1/2 minutes of this video, even if you don’t have children. Beyond content, it’s about emotion.
I was particularly interested by the words of a song that Mr Rogers wrote, called “What do you do?”:
What do you do with the mad that you feel
When you feel so mad you could bite?
When the whole wide world seems oh, so wrong…
And nothing you do seems very right?
What do you do? Do you punch a bag?
Do you pound some clay or some dough?
Do you round up friends for a game of tag?
Or see how fast you go?
It’s great to be able to stop
When you’ve planned a thing that’s wrong,
And be able to do something else instead
And think this song:
I can stop when I want to
Can stop when I wish.
I can stop, stop, stop any time.
And what a good feeling to feel like this
And know that the feeling is really mine.
Know that there’s something deep inside
That helps us become what we can.
For a girl can be someday a woman
And a boy can be someday a man.
To-date, just 200K views on YouTube… more to come!
“One of the first things a child learns, in a healthy family, is trust.” A very true line. I would love to have a read of the script of Mr Rogers’ “philosophical” treatise.
Others blogging on the topic:
New School Network
Don’t tell the donor
Milk and Cookies
While I’m on a Mr Rogers theme, (1 1/2 minutes) — and I’m not going to polemicise the merits of everything he did…. But, try this one out too, it’s one of the last (if not the last) public TV appearances he made before expiring (2003) :
How amazing it was to watch the Mr. Rogers clip. i LOVE him. who doesn’t? he was just amazing, and everyone should watch that video. he was worried about cartoons when we were children, but he must be rolling in his grave over what is flying around on tv and the internet now. we don’t let the kids watch much of anything–they are too busy anyway–and they are super creative and great readers. but still, crazy things find their ways to them. our son wanted to show me the harry potter puppet pals (google them if you haven’t already) to show me what he saw at a friend’s house. a few were pretty funny, i’ll admit–but then one ended with harry taking out everyone with a semi-automatic. not to mention all the questionable youtube soft porn video ads down the side of the screen. it is crazy. last year, in the third grade class, a few boys started “the suicide club,” i kid you not! and apparently they formed the idea over violent video games they were watching. the parents don’t even care–which i find even more disturbing. i really think the parents want their kids to be cool. and they wonder where all the violence comes from! they all need a good blast of Mr. Rogers!