I'd like to thank the Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings for protecting young people from the real world. Where was she when I was a child to start an uproar over Bert and Ernie, the "obviously gay couple" from "Sesame Street"? Where was she in my junior high school art history class when the teacher revealed that a homosexual theme was prevalent in ancient Roman art?
Lucky for the kids today, Spellings is using her influence to make sure horrifying images of loving, gay couples with children never be aired. The smut in question: PBS's popular children's show "Postcards from Buster," a spin-off of "Arthur."
Pierre Valette, an executive producer of the show, said their mission is to highlight diversity. Buster -- a cartoon bunny -- visits real children and provides watchers with video footage about the kind of lives they live.
Buster has visited Hmong children, Mormons, Muslims, evangelical Christians and families with Scandinavian and German backgrounds. Each episode provides a non-judgmental look at the way real children live.
It's a phenomenal idea.
Elementary school kids -- the target demographic -- can be incredibly cruel to one another. With the importance that kids place on media, a television show that encourages diversity should air with Spellings' full support.
And even though the series' mandate from the Department of Education is to highlight diversity, it appears that Spellings is taking on the judgmental role, bullying PBS-affiliated stations into not airing the episode entitled "Sugartime!" which focuses on making maple syrup.
In the episode, Buster asks a girl if she likes having two moms. The girl comments on a photograph of her parents saying: "This is Mom and this is Gail, who also loves me very much." Ahh. A loving, supportive home with happy children. This scene takes up approximately 20 seconds of footage.
Spellings deems this inappropriate for young people because -- with the aid of citing child psychologists -- "Children do better in two-parent households with a male and female influence."
As ridiculous as it seems, Spellings is not the only Washington voice trying to censor the cartoon bunny. Karen Nussle, the wife of Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, told executives at PBS that if they aired the episode, he would not be able to help them politically. John Lawson, PBS's main lobbyist and ear to Washington, warned the network against fighting the administration.
He reported: "This threatens our relationship by making Margaret Spellings have to deal with this."
As a national public station, PBS can be pushed around because they have to concede these small battles to get the money to keep airing shows that are a good influence on kids.
The point is that the episode focuses on the children; the children did nothing wrong and shouldn't be punished. The next step after kids see something they're not used to (be it a new religion, a new family structure or the process of making maple syrup) is to have parents open a dialogue.
Shows like this lead parents to telling their kids about what they will see in the world. They will hear about it -- if not from the media, then from magazines or from people on the street -- they may even see it in their friends' families. Once the dialogue is opened, parents can educate their kids anyway they like.
The actions of Mrs. Nussle and Education Secretary Spellings are that of bullies. Sheltering children from the diversities of life doesn't change the fact that they will encounter the diversities for themselves one day.
Bess Stillman is a biochemistry and English senior. Reach her at bess.stillman@asu.edu.
