Rarely does a show do almost everything it sets out to do so well as the Dora the Explorer cartoon has. In a lot of ways, the Dora the Explorer cartoon is like Sesame Street and Mister Rodgers' Neighborhood, two of the best public TV shows ever. These shows, like Dora, were fun to watch and had a lot of charm, but they also taught kids a lot of important lessons that went beyond just basic academics.
In fact, the Dora the Explorer cartoon does teach many of the basics that kids in the target age group should be learning. It's basically an animated preschool classroom. Dora, on the other hand, does more than just teach shapes and numbers because she uses Spanish words in every episode. At first glance, this may not seem like a big deal, but there are two main reasons why it is important in the lives of children today.
The first reason is the way things are between countries right now. People often say that the world is getting smaller every day, which is mostly true. Technology is making it easier and easier to talk to someone across the world as easily as you could talk to someone across the street. More and more people from different cultures are mixing with each other. Children who learn a second language could have a big advantage over other kids in the long run in a world where communication is so important. Even though most high schools require students to take foreign language classes, the best time for a child to learn a language is when they are young. This means that the Dora the Explorer cartoon teaches kids Spanish at an age when they are most able to learn a new language. This sets them up to be ready for the future.
But the second reason why this is important may be much more important than the first. The Dora the Explorer cartoon teaches kids how to speak Spanish and gives them a taste of Latin American culture. Even though these parts aren't too obvious, they make up a powerful message that is just as strong as anything kids learn in school. It's a simple but important lesson: different things are good.
Without a doubt, this is something that the children of the world's newest generation need to learn, because they are growing up in a world where so many people are still so focused on where someone comes from that they can't see who that person is. Things like the Dora the Explorer cartoon could help a lot to raise a generation of kids who, when they meet someone who is different from them, don't think about how those differences separate them but instead think about what they can learn from those differences.
Jared Winston, 2006. All rights reserved. No One Has the Right.
