Our Children Need Another Fred Rogers

I went to the movies recently to see the documentary about one of my heroes, Fred Rogers.  The movie, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" brought back the 70's and early 80's, when David and Philip were regular viewers of his program.  Especially David.  Oh, did he love that show.  Each day when Mr. Rogers walked into the room, David would be there, and would mimmick Fred as he put on his sweater, then sat down and changed his shoes.  Then, until the carpool picked him up for pre school, he was engrossed in whatever was going on in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

Fred Rogers was an ordained minister, but his true love was working with children.  He thought the most important thing we needed to instill in children was trust.  They needed to trust that their parents would keep them safe, accept them for who they were, and love them.  Seems simple, but it's oh so hard to accomplish.  Fred talked directly to children, not down to them, he did not preach to them.  They loved him, and when he did public appearances, the children all wanted to go up to Mr. Rogers and touch him and tell him they loved him.

Fred would tackle subjects like death, of a pet or a loved one, divorce, war, assassination, tolerance.  He even returned to the air after 9-11 do do a special to help children, and adults, what had happened.>P>

Fred spoke slowly.  The sets on his show were simple.  A neighborhood with a train, a few puppets (Fred did all ten voices), and a few chairs.  He introduced children to people who looked different then they looked.  He brought great musicians, athletes and others on his show to expose kids to the world.  Many people took his warm, loving way as not manly.  He was often called gay, although no one who ever knew or worked with him ever thought so.  He was just a special man, who did not need zippy cartoons and lots of fighting and action to get a child's attention.  He did it with words, and taught his audience to love themselves for who they are, and to accept others for what they are.  It's a message we could all follow today.  He died in 2003, and although there is some good children's programming, nothing that I know of  has come along to replace the good feeling that children developed and the lack of fear to express how they were feeling, that Mr. Rogers gave them.  He was truly one of a kind.