As a child, growing up in the 70’s, every weekday I excitedly looked forward to watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I loved when the trolley took us to the Land of Make Believe to see King Friday, Lady Elaine, and Lady Aberlin. This show introduced me to people, places, experiences, and events that were not aspects of my cultural landscape, for example, ballet dancing and classical music. But what captured my attention with the show went beyond its elements. My attention was captured by a person – Mr. Rogers.
Mr. Rogers was caring. He was a gifted educator who stirred the curiosity and imagination of developing minds while making children feel a sense of belonging as his neighbor. Mr. Rogers masterfully taught us that it was okay to own and express our feelings of sadness and joy. He acknowledged and valued diversity of color, abilities, and professions teaching children to appreciate the unique, yet similar ways people show up in the world. Through his personality, and these carefully curated episodes, Mr. Rogers conveyed powerful experiences of love, care, inclusivity, and mindfulness (silence, listening, and reflection). As a result, you saw reflections of yourself or who you could be. Mr. Roger’s curriculum was “culturally relevant” and “culturally responsive” long before Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings coined the phrase.
Mr. Rogers believed that the work he was doing was sacred and that children and people in general needed to be shown love, care, and compassion. In a PBS interview with Charlie Rose he shared, “Love is at the root of everything – all learning, all relationships, love or the lack of it”. Therefore, hedged in the Christian tradition of “loving thy neighbor as yourself” he encouraged us to learn, “Who are the people in your neighborhood? – they are people that you meet when you are walking down the street, they are the people that you meet each day”. Then he urged us to care for and about them.
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is relevant today as it was during the 70’s and 80’s of my childhood. Amidst the normal tensions of human development, today’s children, adolescents, and youth are coming of age by navigating life through the disruption of educational, political, religious, social, technological, and economic systems. Their struggle, of managing expectations in this liminal space between the past, present, and future while finding a place to belong, is real.
Recently, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, conducted a forum titled, The Crisis in Adolescent Mental Health, to address the societal concern of increasing levels of anxiety and depression among adolescents. Linda Charmaraman, senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women and director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab, through an empathic lens, reminded us that “adolescents are growing up in an ecosystem that is a blurred boundary between real life and digital life” and the reality of this space is real and important to them. The societal challenge we face then, is promoting a more constructive rather than mere critical soul crushing dialogue about today’s children, adolescents, and youth. In support of Dr. Charmaraman’s sentiments, Mr. Roger’s would remind us to embrace them because they are our neighbors not our nemesis.
Furthering these child-adolescent-youth friendly attitudes, Clinical Psychologist Lisa Damour, and author of the book, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers, passionately emphasized,
“We know what supports adolescent mental health and it is strong relationships with caring adults. This is the single most powerful force, and it has always been the most powerful force and we are not going to therapeutize or medicate our way out of this situation, it will be about adults stepping up for teenagers”.
Dr. Damour too is asking us, about half a century later, what Mr. Rogers asked and showed us, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” The adult is taking the initiative to walk next door and connect with young people in loving ways whether through technological screens or face-to-face interactions.
Some teachers, like many other adults find connecting with children, adolescents, and youth difficult to do. There is both a joy and struggle working with young people as we witness firsthand the intersectionality between emotions expressed amid their search for belonging, identity, and purpose. To help us resolve this tension, Mr. Rogers, in his interview with Charlie Rose reminded us of two heartfelt truths, that “it helps to be loved in order to work in this life” and “what we see is rarely what is essential”. I believe Mr. Roger’s would invite us to neighborly look beneath the surface of what young people are experiencing today and love them so we can effectively help them navigate this time of global transition.
One of the key behaviors that students from K-College use to describe a caring teacher, is a teacher who loves them. What does it mean for a teacher to love students? – “Showing unconditional acceptance of students as a moral and professional duty through acts of kindness, patience, understanding, humility, including finding something admirable in each student and letting students know what you admire about them (Callwood, 2021). Mr. Rogers did this excavation beneath the surface to find the essential exquisitely. We can begin this excavation through a simple act and phrase, Mr. Rogers used during the end of his opening song – with a warm disposition towards his television audience he said, “Hi neighbor!” In a similar fashion educators can say, with a smile, “Hi class” or “Hi team”.
Now more than ever, children, adolescents, and youth need to be surrounded by a loving ecosystem as we find meaningful ways to be a part of their growth and development. Let us begin inviting them into a caring relationship with a friendly greeting, a smile, a listening ear, and words of encouragement that says – I see you, I’m glad you are here, and you belong. “Won’t you please? Won’t you please? Please won’t you be their neighbor?”
References
Callwood, A. (2021). Developing Educators’ Capacity for Natural and Ethical Caring: A Mixed Methods Study. Dissertation. Long Island University Post
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Askwith Education Forum (2023): The Crisis in Adolescent Mental Health, retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNOeAGZP4ys&t=1373s
Rogers, F. (2005). Life’s journeys according to mister rogers. Hachette Books.
Rose, Charlie (2003). Remembering Fred Rogers retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djoyd46TVVc
