The other day I had the good fortune to come across a documentary film entitled, "Being Elmo". This film chronicles the journey of Kevin Clash, the puppeteer who created the Sesame St. character Elmo. This film had CEP 882 written all over it. Viewers are given an inside look into the process and thinking behind the creation of some of the most beloved Muppet characters as well as the motivation and personality of the people who bring them to life.
In the film, Kevin recalls the first time that he saw Sesame St. on his television. Oddly enough his first impression was not of the actors or the Muppets themselves. Instead Kevin reacted to the setting of the show and how it resembled his home, an impoverished Baltimore neighborhood. I immediately thought of the genius of the set designers and how hard it must have been to design a space that was both visually unique and familiar to the audience. The designers used lighting and proportion to give Sesame St. the illusion of a much larger and complex space.
How does this relate to education? Think of the importance of the environment created for this show, a show designed for the express purpose of educating children. It is a place children want to inhabit, to become a part of. It is a comfortable place because it resembles home and it becomes an interesting place due to the new and interesting characters that populate this space. As educators we could learn a thing or two from Sesame St. about the importance the physical environment plays in the learning process. We need to create environments that are simultaneously comfortable and engaging in order to get the most out of a student. Perhaps we could spend some time populating our classrooms with a character or two and if we are lucky a child will be too busy having fun to realize he/she is actually learning.
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