AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Forty years have passed since puppeteer extraordinaire Jim Henson and a brilliant cast of producers, writers and performers at Children’s Television Workshop launched an experimental children’s program called “Sesame Street.”

It was a response to what Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minnow had described in 1961 as the “vast wasteland” of television offerings, especially children’s programming.

The premise of the experiment was simple: Could television help children, especially children from lower-income families, learn and prepare them for school?
Education experts have been arguing about that ever since, with the consensus suggesting that

“Sesame Street” has a positive — but not overwhelming — impact on school readiness. As always in education, parental involvement is critical. But “Sesame Street” never pretended that television alone could do the job.

Generations of children and their parents will testify about the integral part “Sesame Street” played in their lives and the prominent place the show occupies in their hearts.

“Sesame Street” ingeniously uses puppets, animation, skits, music and lyrics to develop letter and word recognition, principles of arithmetic and identification of colors and geometric shapes and to reinforce basic life skills such as personal hygiene and “stop, look and listen” before crossing a street.

“Sesame Street” is where children got their first look at many of the world’s great artists, inspired leaders and other accomplished people. They watched VIPs laugh, chat it up and convey some positive message as Big Bird loomed over them or Kermit the Frog, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Grover, Cookie Monster or Elmo gave a gentle ribbing.

Perhaps, above all, “Sesame Street” has been a place where, for 40 years, children of all ages could be safe. It has been a place that appreciates people’s similarities and diversity, understands the challenges and benefits sharing and cooperating, marvels at the natural world, sensitively explores all manner of human emotion and laughs and has fun.

“Sesame Street” has a loyal following. If you doubt it, ask Newt Gingrich. As speaker of the U.S. House in 1995, he proved no match for Big Bird and company when he tried to cut funding for public television.

The children of “Sesame Street” also are a potent force for social progress. They understand Kermit the Frog’s lament that “it’s not that easy being green” because “it seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things.” Still, they know that “green’s the color of spring. And green can be cool and friendly like.”

And, what child, regardless of age, can resist the call to:

Come and play, everything’s A-OK
Friendly neighbors there, that’s where we meet
Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street?