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Jesse McMahon, who lives in midcoast Maine, is currently the content producer for the award-winning PBS KIDS show “Carl the Collector.” Her other television credits include Nature Cat (PBS KIDS) and Mystery League (PBS KIDS), among others.
I’ll start with an anecdote. We’re a team of maybe 10 people, all in our respective video chat boxes, engaged in an animated discussion about how to portray a moment in an episode of a children’s show we work on together. We come to a consensus and our series director laughs, pointing out the 15 minutes we spent to figure out a beat that would last a second or two.
In truth, this was an ordinary occurrence. We just hadn’t ever paused to appreciate it. It is incalculable, the amount of thought that goes into every word, movement, design — all the minutia that when stitched together become a PBS KIDS episode.
And it’s because the scores of people behind every PBS KIDS series stand united with one overarching goal: to produce high-quality, educational and engaging children’s content. Every learning moment is guided by research in child development, curricular frameworks written by subject-matter experts, and series advisers who ensure information is conveyed authentically, factually and memorably.
And it works.
In my 10-plus years as a children’s television producer, I have seen the magic of children learning organically from the PBS KIDS shows they watch and then carrying those lessons into their everyday lives. I’ve seen it anecdotally as a mom and from the excited shares of parents and educators.
I’ve seen it in the research, too.
Here’s just one example. Research from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania illustrated the success the series “Super WHY!” had in helping preschoolers learn early literacy skills. Among their findings: Low-income children benefited, in particular. Those in the study that watched Super WHY! scored 46 percent higher on standardized tests than low-income children in the control group.
Notably and relevantly, that research was funded by a U.S. Department of Education’s Ready to Learn grant, which is my segue to why I’m writing this missive in the first place.
I have been dismayed by the misguided vilification of PBS KIDS, and the shows the network airs. Every day those working in the PBS KIDS space strive to produce the best free, accessible television possible to help prepare children for school, and to model ways to be active, helpful and kind members of the communities to which they belong.
It’s really that simple.
The goal of these attacks, of course, is to defund public media. Most recently, the administration took a substantial step toward that goal by cancelling current Ready to Learn grants. This is quickly proving devastating for content, including current shows, as well as shows you may now never get to see.
What will happen if this administration is successful in clawing back more money and ending federal funding entirely for PBS?
There are so many unknowns, so much uncertainty. What I can say with confidence: Our children will pay the biggest price.
I started with an anecdote, because I have been feeling the need to defend the work I do and the incredible people whom I have had the privilege of working with across the years. It is not entirely startling to me that I have to defend it. We’ve seen threats to public media funding before. But in the past the guardrails held, public media carried on.
This time is different.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting — through which federal funds flow to PBS and NPR — was established as an independent institution to act as a firewall between the government and its interests and public media. The administration wants to dismantle that firewall. These threats to PBS KIDS and other public media entities represent a larger attack on our free press, our independence and other democratic institutions we have taken for granted for so long.
We can’t do that anymore.
So, I end with a call to action. Please contact your legislators and ask them to restore and protect funding for PBS KIDS — for all public media.