"Sesame Street," the educational TV show, changed a lot of people's ideas about education. It offers a kaleidoscopic mix of gentle fun that seems to have nothing to do with education at all. One episode may start with a band of puppet rock stars - the Beetles - singing an ode entitled "Letter B" (to a tune that sounds surprisingly like the Beatles' "Let It Be"). Then the picture cuts to Big Bird asking Oscar the Grouch to help him write a letter to his uncle - Uncle Bird, whose name just happens to start with the letter B. Five mintues later, a cartoon letter B is jumping in front of various letter combinatins while a voice intones the words spelled out: "B-b-oy." "B-b-bathtub." "B-b-bicycle."
"Sesame Street" showed that teaching kids doesn't always mean forcing them to sit down and memorize lists. By watching Big Bird, the Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch, children painlessly learn the letter B as well as colors, shapes, and alot more.
The book of Proverbs does for wisdom what "Sesame Street" does for the ABC's. Much of Proverbs reads like a collection of one-liners, moving quickly (and apparently illogically) from one subject to another. A proverb pleases the ear much as "Sesame Street" pleases the eye, using "shortness, sense and salt" to compress life into a handful of memorable words. But just as with the TV program, Proverbs has an overall objective behind its disorder. If you spend enough time in Proverbs, you will gain a subtle and practical understanding of life. |
