To borrow the words of Longfellow, in the summer “the landscape lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.” Summer and childhood have always been synonymous to me, nature reflecting the brilliant green exuberance of youth and beckoning children outside to pretend and play until the last of the sweaty days set with the sun.
Though I’ve grown too old to appreciate the carefree months of summer in the same way, when May giddily rolls in each year, I begin trying to recapture those childhood summer days. Whether it be in breathing the delicious summery smells of freshly cut grass or chlorine, collecting seashells on the beach or standing in line for the midnight release of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” I take every opportunity I can to feel like a kid again.
So, you can obviously imagine my delight when I discovered this summer that one of my most beloved TV shows of the early ’90s had been released on DVD-“The Adventures of Pete and Pete.” I purchased it straightaway and after watching it for the first time in 10 years, a lot of things became apparent to me about the saddening decadence between my generation, or rather our generation and the generation of kids who are following in our footsteps.
Last summer I worked as a day camp counselor at the YMCA and was shocked to see firsthand the level of importance 7 and 8-year-old children placed on things that I never even considered as a child: clothing, style, popularity, cliques, even sexuality. All of these things weren’t discussed in a cutesy who-has-a-crush-on-whom manner through innocent childhood eyes, either. It was horrific how mature these children viewed themselves to be and how desperately they were trying to grow up quickly.
After racking my brain, wondering when things changed and how this could’ve happened, watching “Pete and Pete” shed some light on the tragic phenomenon. The show, for those of you who somehow missed it years ago, followed issues faced by older Pete, such as getting a crush on his best girl friend and forgetting to study for a big test, and by younger Pete, with conflicts such as with gym teachers and battles over later bedtimes. The issues dealt with by the Petes provided valuable life lessons that were always much deeper than I could comprehend as a seven year old.
The show was filled with bizarre characters, situations and music, but the show was much more intensely meaningful, wistful and heartfelt than I ever realized.
So was it children’s shows like this that kept me from growing up too quickly?
They absolutely played a large part. I spent the majority of my time outside as a child, a tomboy through and through, but when I took a break from play to relax in front of the TV, the shows I watched encouraged the beauty of imagination and the importance of getting outside and being a kid. Most importantly, the shows never dealt with superficial issues like style and popularity. School bullies, maybe, but certainly nothing like what’s on children’s TV today.
I believe that today’s media is pressuring children to mature far earlier than they should. Turn on any channel with children’s programming, and it’s automatically apparent what values these channels are stressing to children.
Nickelodeon has debuted shows like “Unfabulous,” in which a preteen girl spends the majority of her time writing whiny songs about her unfabulous life and how she can’t get the boy of her dreams to notice her. Another example of stellar programming is “Zoey 101,” a sitcom in which the real-life little sister of Britney Spears becomes a student at a formerly all-boys boarding school that has just begun accepting girls. Everything about these shows and others simply oozes superficiality, encourages judgmental behavior, and does nothing to promote creativity or originality the way shows of my childhood did so beautifully.
We only get one chance to appreciate the carefree days of childhood, the days that are gone so quickly, and at times sorely missed; the days for which summer stands. Ensuring that future generations don’t fall into the trap of growing up too soon is a responsibility that falls into our hands. We may not be able to stop Nickelodeon from producing shows like “Zoey 101,” but we can, and should, do everything possible to stress to children the importance of being young, of imagination, of appreciating a summer day.