Emily Gan Week 8 - American Cartoons
I LOVE AMERICAN CARTOONS LIKE PBS KIDS THAT’S MY JAM. My favorites growing up were Wild Kratts (my brother's favorite of course), Clifford the Big Red Dog (mainly because the main lead's name is Emily too), Curious George, Martha Speaks, and Word Girl. I would spend all my time watching those shows, from the second I got home from school to dinner time.
Although these cartoons are different in topics and characters, they all teach the same morals, which I believe to be the epitome of American ideals. They always preach to be independent, hardworking, and caring. I feel like Wild Kratts is the perfect example of all those morals at once in all the episodes. Chris and Martin (the main characters of Wild Kratts) go around saving animals from danger, showing care for others and the environment around them. They work hard to teach kids about all the fascinating creatures around the world, all while using teamwork to complete independent tasks to come together to defeat a common enemy. Using cartoons in an insightful way like this gives the next generation a frame of what is morally correct.
Not only do they teach morals but also train kids to be more open to different things. When you are little you are aware of your bubble. Such as when I was little I would only talk to my family and my family friends who are also Chinese, so when I found out my best friend in elementary school was Filipino I did not even know that was a thing. But I knew different skin colors were normal though, through the media I have consumed. From Wild Kratts to Word Girl, there was always a range of different ethnicities represented in the cast (although to little me they just had different skin colors since I didn’t what race was.) PBS Kids has taught me a lot and their morals are the foundation for what I strive to be.
Hi Emily! The topic of your blog is really interesting because all the shows you mentioned were shows that I’ve watched in my childhood as well. It’s really interesting how the same shows can shape the majority of a generation’s core memories, and I also agree that these shows were a great display of American ideals. For example, Wild Kratts taught me that its important to care for the environment and the benefits of working in a team. Most American cartoons often depict the “good guys” as a team of people who work well together and the “bad guys” as a sole person, often with a henchman that despises them. Because these shows depicted the winners as being part of a team and the villains as lonely people, these shows made me realise that teamwork is a really important trait at a young age. The more I think about it, the more I realize that there are a lot of traits I learned from characters in PBS cartoons that I still use today. For example, Team Umizoomi was the first math show I was interested in, and it played a large part in fostering my love for math. Super Why, one of my favorite childhood shows, taught me the importance of teamwork. These childhood shows have played a large part in shaping future generations.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily! Reading about your blog brought back old memories because I also used to love watching PBS Kids as well. I remember coming home from school and watching a couple episodes of Wild Kratts, and also on the weekends just waking up early and watching Curious George. When I was watching Wild Kratts, however, I never really thought about the morals that they were trying to teach; I just knew that the Kratt brothers loved the environment and cared about animals. I honestly just watched it to learn interesting facts about animals that I would later tell my parents or my friends. I remember having a phase for a couple months where I was so obsessed with animals that I bought a bunch of animal encyclopedias and just read them all day. Looking back at these cartoons from a more analytical perspective, I can see that Curious George, for example, teaches children to question things and ask more questions. These are all very important traits that hold a lot of value (maybe even more) as you get older, and it's great that these values are being taught in a way that is both entertaining and easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily! Your blog this week is especially relatable as almost everyone watched cartoons when they were younger. I like your perspective about the cartoons and how they help us learn to be moral human beings. Cartoons are one of the first things that we are introduced to, so it influences our morals and way of thinking which, as you said, shapes our personality. My favorite cartoon growing up was Scooby Doo, which had multiple life lessons. It taught me about how teamwork helps one achieve great things because the gang was only able to solve the mysteries when they worked together. Scooby Doo taught me to look out for others and help people in their time of need, which has made me grow into a better person today. I like the example of Wild Kratts that you incorporated into your blog, and I do believe that it has influenced me into caring more about animals and people in general. Incorporating morals and life lessons into cartoons are extremely important and smart because they make the lessons entertaining and engrossing which influences kids more.
ReplyDeleteHey Emily, I agree with your point that many of the shows people watched as kids have shown to be a good influence on them. Many of these shows were ones that I watched a lot growing up, especially wild kratts. American morals and ideals have been shown in many of its industries but it has shown the most in its children shows. Teaching children early on is good for providing them with a positive influence. Growing up, PBS was not the only show that had a lot of influence on people. Channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network also had a lot of influence. Overall your blog is well organized and shows good point son how TV shows positively affected many in America as children.
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