[esseph]

I think you're taking away a different message from what I did, I watch 1462 and 1463 looking for this section.

The message I got was not "don't learn this stuff before school", the message I took away was that, for a lot of kids watching that show on PBS, especially around the air date of 1979, you were looking at "latchkey kids" plus the incredible struggles of poverty and access to information.

It wasn't "don't learn this", it was "you are not less of a human being because you were born into a family that didn't or couldn't take the time to help teach you these things before you started school". That was the takeaway, for me, and for a lot of the kids I grew up around that weren't privileged.

[gonzobonzo]

But it's not showing that. You could have two kids start school at the same time and say that it's OK that they didn't have different backgrounds. But that's not what they showed - they're showing people who are telling Elaine it's wrong to teach the kids when the kids want to go off and play.

> "you are not less of a human being because you were born into a family that didn't or couldn't take the time to help teach you these things before you started school"

But Elaine does want to teach the kids in this episode. I don't see how this episode would do anything other than encourage fewer parents to try to teach their kids before they go off to school.

[esseph]

"I don't see how this episode would do anything other than encourage fewer parents to try to teach their kids before they go off to school."

You're so far outside the typical audience for this show!

Think more along the lines of poverty with no parents at home, maybe they're both working, or maybe one is incarcerated!

This show sure wasn't put together for young kids of privilege and financial and community support and means - the exactly opposite.