Addressing Covid 19 Crisis with Young Audience Script Introduction Filmmaker Morgan Neville examines the life and legacy of Fred Rogers, the beloved host

Addressing Covid 19 Crisis with Young Audience Script Introduction

Filmmaker Morgan Neville examines the life and legacy of Fred Rogers, the beloved host of the popular children’s television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. What does it mean to teach? What does it mean to learn? Can television be a teacher? Can Neighborhoods be schools?

Neighborhood as School Project, Brazil: A new concept of education was developed in Vila Madalena, a small district in Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo. Since 1997, the non-governmental organisation Cidade Escola Aprendiz, has been turning squares, alleys, cinemas, ateliers, cultural centers and theaters into classrooms. This “Neighborhood as School” concept, an extension of formal schooling, aims to expand learning spaces in the community, creating a pedagogic laboratory in which learning is also knowing oneself and socially intervening in the community through communication, art and sports. Everybody educates and everybody learns. Source: What makes a school a learning organization? (Links to an external site.)

In his children’s television series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood applies the concept of neighborhoods as schools, and uses television as a teacher to help children across the world access positive messages of hope, understanding, and acceptance.

Topics: Early Childhood Education, The Role of Education, Ethics

Core Concepts: Links to an external site.Schools as Organizations

Watch

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018) (Links to an external site.)

Reading (optional)

What makes a school a learning organization?

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“It seems to me that there are different themes in life and one of my main jobs it seems to me, is to help through the mass media for children, to help children through some of the difficult modulations of life”. -Fred Rodgers

Step 1: Respond (1-3 minute video, 10 points)

You are on the creative team of the children’s television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. A local television station has asked you to produce a 1-3 minute video that addresses the Covid 19 Crisis with young audiences. The television station has given you absolute creative liberty as to the characters, setting, and content of your message.

Make a puppet. Your puppet can be digital (computer created) or physical (for example, paper bag or drawing).
Make a video of your puppet that could be helpful for a child during the crisis. Write a 3 minutes script that explaining how your script is meant to help a child through the Crisis. (e.g. like when Lady Aberlin would talk to the puppets)

Step 2: Comment. Choose three other students posts to comment on by the following Monday, 10 am. 100 word minimum response.(will send later)