I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or scream about this next story. It offends me on so many levels, personally and professionally. In the end let it serve as a teaching moment for us all to remember that we really need to take a look at the facts rather than just accept what’s dropped in front of us.
A story from 2008 has floated back to the surface. It began with a quote from a Professor at Louisiana State University who claimed that he had figured out why so many of his students were so self centered. It was Fred Rogers’ fault. The folks at Fox News picked it up and added the word “evil” to the story, as in Fred Rogers is evil and to blame for all the shortcomings of our young people.
Now Mr. Rogers and I share a hometown. He’s beloved down in Pittsburgh so my hackles went up right away. Then I started looking into the story and I got mad. You see the LSU professor (a Finance professor by the way) had decided that Mr. Rogers telling kids that they were “special” had turned them into selfish brats. He had no evidence for this beyond his own students but it’s been treated as if he’d conducted a scientific study. Now if you ever watched Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood you know that the “You’re Special” thing was a very small part of the whole show. Large portions of the rest of the show were in fact about NOT being selfish. But some folks picked up the ball and ran. It was so simple, so obvious. Mr. Rogers destroyed our children. Along the way we’ll conveniently ignore that at the height of his popularity Mr. Rogers was seen in exactly 8 per cent of American homes. Eight.
It offends me that ANY supposed news organization would have given the time of day to this story. They ran down a man’s reputation after he was dead and couldn’t defend himself. It was a cheap and shallow stunt that obscures the real problems facing our young people.
There IS a concerning rise in self centeredness among our youth. Studies say that above average scores on tests for narcissism have increased 30% in the last 25 years. The reasons are complicated and strike close to home. You see as parents we need to take some share of the blame. Why not? We’re the folks raising these kids.
Let’s start by teaching them not to cop out with cheap, sleazy answers that let us off the hook. And let’s avoid smearing the name of a good man who only wanted to be...our neighbor.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY. You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010
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