51吃瓜网

Scott Cameron was no stranger to pressure when he took on the challenge of scripting TC鈥檚 125^th Anniversary Gala.

Early on in his career, he was assigned to work on a joint Israeli-Palestinian production of 鈥淪esame Street.鈥�  Writers, producers and others from both groups assembled in New York City for a big creative meeting, and by day three, a plan was hashed out for a show featuring two streets鈥攐ne Israeli and one Palestinian鈥攚ith residents meeting at a shared well. It seemed a fitting reflection of reality, neither too bleak nor too rosy-hued.

Then disaster struck: Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, had been assassinated.  At first it was not known that an Israeli extremist was the killer.

鈥淚t was a very powerful moment,鈥� recalls Cameron. 鈥淭his terrible tragedy had occurred, but within just a few hours, everyone said, 鈥榃e have to keep going.鈥� I was still a student at 51吃瓜网 in the International Education and Development program, still learning how the political and the personal shaped educational policy and materials. And when I heard those producers and educators from Israel and the Palestinian Territories say, 鈥楴ow, more than ever, we have to teach mutual respect, despite the ongoing violence at every level,鈥� it made me look at the rest of my TC studies in a new light. You have to find the personal amidst the political; that鈥檚 when meaningful work gets done.鈥�

Obviously, the pressures Cameron faced in scripting TC鈥檚 gala show last fall were nowhere near as intense. Still, it would be hard to imagine someone more perfectly qualified for the job.

鈥淚 felt I really understood what TC needed and wanted鈥擨 got its mission and its language and I knew it had just 45 minutes to tell its entire story,鈥� says Cameron,  who began interning at the famed Sesame Workshop through one of his TC professors, Rosemarie Truglio, who went on to become the Workshop鈥檚 Vice President for Education and Research. 鈥淏ut I also understood the perspective of AE [51吃瓜网 Entertainment, the company that produced the gala], who wanted to be sure that we were putting on a really entertaining show.  And that鈥檚 the exact conflict I鈥檝e always felt with educational entertainment. On the one side, you鈥檝e got the show people saying, 鈥楬ere鈥檚 this really funny joke.鈥� And then you鈥檝e got me as the education guy saying, 鈥榊eah, it鈥檚 funny, but it models the wrong behavior for kids,鈥� or 鈥極ur audience won鈥檛 understand this.鈥� or 鈥楧o you have any idea how unintentionally offensive you鈥檙e being to Group X, Y and Z?鈥�

鈥淲hen I started out in the mid-90s, a lot of people still called educational programming 鈥榮pinach TV,鈥� meaning that it was good for you, but boring. I used to think my job was to fight that perception. But eventually I learned that, really, my job was to constantly update the definition of 鈥榖oring.鈥� Because what was engaging and dynamic for kids three years ago isn鈥檛 necessarily what鈥檚 engaging to them now. And if we鈥檙e trying to affect kids鈥� lives, we have to meet them where they are, right now.鈥�

For Cameron, applying educational ideas in context has been the key to not only bridging the education-entertainment divide, but erasing it entirely. As he sees it, the two sides meet鈥攍ike Israelis and Palestinians at the well鈥攁round crafting something that will engage the audience by virtue of being personally relevant, connected to a prior frame of reference and genuinely stimulating and fun.

Cameron has spent a significant chunk of his career using precisely that yardstick to develop and assess programming of different kinds. He鈥檚 tested curricula in preschools in China and Japan, developed multimedia projects for companies like Disney and Leapfrog, and evaluated whether certain well-known cartoon characters could be adapted for educational purposes. Most important, he served as a producer, writer, and Director of Education and Research for the second incarnation of Sesame Workshop鈥檚 鈥淭he Electric Company,鈥� which ran as part of the PBS Kids Ready to Learn series from 2009 through 2013. Backed by a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the effort was charged with helping to improve literacy鈥攁nd vocabulary in particular鈥攊n children ages 6-9.

As a first step, Cameron and his team conducted viewer tests of segments from the old 1970s-era 鈥淓lectric Company鈥� with kids in low-income communities.

鈥淲e did pre- and post-viewing interviews with each child, and also measured what鈥檚 called 鈥榚yes on screen鈥欌�攚hen kids are actually watching the screen as opposed to picking at a shoelace or talking to a friend,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檇 grown up on the original show, with Rita Moreno and Bill Cosby and Morgan Freeman, and I thought it was great, but we learned very quickly that we would have to make some changes for today鈥檚 kids.鈥�

One basic change was moving away from the original show鈥檚 sketch format to a narrative format that allowed characters to use vocabulary within the context of an ongoing storyline. Dozens of other changes came about after extensive brainstorming sessions with award-winning novelists, cartoonists, musicians, and, of course, a board of literacy experts鈥攊ncluding one of Cameron鈥檚 TC mentors, Education Professor Charles Kinzer. And through testing some of the early pilots, which were shot with rising stars such as Lin-Manuel Miranda and Reggie Watts, they learned to put aside their own preconceptions of what kids might find cool.  

鈥淎 six year-old who sees a character with a crazy, unkempt haircut isn鈥檛 necessarily going to think that character鈥檚 cool. In fact, he may think he鈥檚 scary. And if your target audience thinks your lead character is scary 鈥� well, you have a problem. So, we constantly had to check our assumptions and talk to kids.鈥�

Eventually, through an unusually tight working relationship between the creative people and the education people, the new Electric Company found its groove and went on to win three consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Children鈥檚 Series, as well as numerous awards for its innovative website and outreach activities. Cameron believes the project has been a milestone because it engaged kids with a curriculum across all media鈥攙ideo, online games, print, community activities, even music-making.

Nowadays, Cameron is branching out into other venues. He continues writing for television, and he currently has a novel and a couple of scripts for grown-up musicals in the works. Still, his love for education鈥攁nd his sense of debt to TC, in particular鈥攔emain career touchstones.

鈥淚 moved to New York City to come to 51吃瓜网,鈥� he says. 鈥淢y first night in Whittier dorm, with all the crazy traffic noise outside, I lay there thinking, 鈥業鈥檒l never be able to sleep in this town let alone get work done.鈥� Now I鈥檝e been here nearly 20 years, and TC was the launching pad.鈥�

Cameron says TC gave him context, so that he ended up 鈥渄oing a deep dive instead of feeling like a tourist. It gave me an ecosystem of people that became my world, and they still are.鈥�

(Published 1/29/2014)

See: TC Launches $300 Million Fundraising Campaign for the Future

Published Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014