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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Sesame Street' creates first Muppet to have a parent in jail
Those friendly, fuzzy Muppets from Sesame Street have helped kids open up about all sorts of serious subjects, from hunger and divorce to military deployment.
But theyre now tackling a much more unexpected issue: incarceration.
Meet Alex, the first Muppet to have a dad in jail. According to a Pew Charitable Trusts report, one in 28 children in the United States now has a parent behind bars -- more than the number of kids with a parent who is deployed -- so its a real issue, but its talked about far less because of the stigma.
Thats why the Sesame Workshop says it created the Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration initiative, an online tool kit intended to help kids with a parent in prison find support and comfort, and provide families with strategies and tips to talk to their children about incarceration.
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Alex is blue-haired and green-nosed and he wears a hoodie you might think hes just another carefree inhabitant of Sesame Street. But theres sorrow in Alexs voice when he talks about his father.
I just miss him so much, he tells a friend. I usually dont want people to know about my Dad.
Its easier for kids to hear such things from a Muppet than an adult, creators of the initiative noted.
Coming from a Muppet, its almost another child telling their story to the children, said Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of outreach and educational practices at the Sesame Workshop.
Alex will not be part of the regular cast on Sesame Street, but hes playing a central role in the online tool kit.
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http://www.nbcnews.com/health/sesame-street-creates-first-muppet-have-parent-jail-6C10345061
A tough topic and bravo to them for takling it.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)FirstLight
(13,364 posts)WHAT would a Muppet possibly do to get thrown in jail!?
sorry, that was my first thought... *snort*
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)The most commonly seen criminal on Sesame Street is Lefty, a shady-looking salesman in a trench coat, who appeared in several recurring Sesame Street sketches discreetly selling hot items to passersby (usually Ernie). Lefty spoke in a whispery voice as he attempted to unload such boosted items as the letters U and O, an invisible ice cream cone, and even exotic elephant artwork. These sketches can be found on Lefty's own page. Lefty's boss (a Fat Blue Anything Muppet performed by Jerry Nelson) appeared in a few sketches with his lackey, often in a dark alley or abandoned warehouse after dark.
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_Gangsters
Pelican
(1,156 posts)MynameisBlarney
(2,979 posts)O U.
Rod Walker
(187 posts)tclambert
(11,087 posts)And the Count sounds kinda foreign. Bet he doesn't have a green card.
Initech
(100,102 posts)lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)Hats off to SS
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)when my sons were little, and they are still doing a great job.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)privatizer pete peterson.
it's people like peterson pushing the policies -- offshoring of jobs, pushing down wages, 'ethnic cleansing' of our big cities, three strikes laws, drug war, destruction of the safety net - *responsible* for our high incarceration rate, and cooney & other purveyors and funders of sesame street profit.
but now kids can talk about their incarcerated fathers. wow. such is what passes for 'liberalism' these days.
Aristus
(66,462 posts)You could become the first Muppet to get shot to death by a gun-crazed, self-appointed executioner with Rambo fantasies...