‘Sesame Street’ dives into teaching about addiction, opioid crisis
The popular children’s show Sesame Street has revealed that a character’s mother is battling addiction, acquainting kids with the opioid crisis that has devastated swaths of the country.
A fuzzy green Muppet introduced in May is in foster care because her mother is in recovery, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the show, revealed this week in a series of videos. The materials are part of an initiative called Sesame Street in Communities that offers online-only resources to caregivers trying to explain difficult issues to children.
“Having a parent battling addiction can be one of the most isolating and stressful situations young children and their families face,” Sherrie Westin, president of social impact and philanthropy at Sesame Workshop, said Wednesday in a statement.” Sesame Street has always been a source of comfort to children during the toughest of times, and our new resources are designed to break down the stigma of parental addiction and help families build hope for the future.”
Sesame Street, which has aired since 1969, frequently introduces characters with a variety of life circumstances to teach its young viewers empathy for others. A homeless Muppet and a character with autism have made appearances on the show. The latter became controversial last month when it was used in a campaign to encourage early screening and diagnosis of autism. Speculation about the sexual orientations of Bert and Ernie, meanwhile, ran wild when Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman said he had always thought of them as gay.
By choosing to tackle the sensitive topic of addiction, some experts told the Washington Post that Sesame Workshop got it right. Teaching kids to deal with challenges and to show empathy toward struggling families is a healthy response to the severity of the opioid epidemic, experts in early childhood development and in children hurt by addiction said.
“There’s far too many children who are experiencing adverse events, this being one of them, to let this go unaddressed,” said Christy Tirrell-Corbin, executive director of the Center for Early Childhood Education and Intervention at the University of Maryland.
Sesame Workshop’s decision to tackle the issue of addiction was greeted mostly with applause from people who said the resources help break down stigma, suggest ways to cope with trauma and teach kids that they’re not alone.