The year was 1995. The venue was the Moscone Convention Center in downtown San Francisco. Facing an audience of over 5,000 pediatricians was the American Academy of Pediatrics president, introducing that year’s keynote speaker.
It was during a cultural era when television and newspapers were the two most influential media forums. The words “social media” were not in that culture’s lexicon.
The iconic guest and keynote speaker that year was an influential TV personality. Admired by millions of children and parents in North America for his soft-spoken and sincere style, no doubt the man backstage, about to be introduced, probably remained as calm as he always was in front of cameras and under bright studio lights.
His warm smile lit up the convention center when he stepped on stage. The president gave him a gift from the AAP – a windbreaker with the AAP logo on the chest. Without missing a beat, the speaker took off his jacket, put on his new gift, pulled up the zipper and uttered these words: “It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood.”
The crowd stood up in unison and gave the smiling Fred Rogers, host of the famous TV show Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, a protracted standing ovation.
Perhaps, today, the name Fred Rogers may not ring a bell as much as it did almost 30 years ago.
And yet, even today, his words ring true. They still make today beautiful — perhaps even more so than when they were first uttered, because we find ourselves in a time when social media has harmed millions of young minds; where we are told to not let kids have smartphones before they are 16 and where many spend as much as seven hours a day on screens; and where, between 2010 and 2024, major depression among teens went up 145 per cent among girls and 161 per cent among boys.
As Peggy Noonan, a former presidential speechwriter and regular Wall Street Journal columnist recently wrote, “Girls moved their social lives onto social media and boys burrowed into immersive video games, Reddit, YouTube and pornography.”
We need to be reminded of some of Mr. Rogers’ wisdom:
• “All of us, at some time or other, need help …”
• “Nobody else can live the life you live.”
•” Anyone who does anything to help a child in his/her life is a hero.”
• “We speak with more than our mouths.”
• “You are special.” And … “You are loved just the way you are.”
• “As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has or ever will have; something inside that is unique to all time. It is our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”
Throughout his career, Fred Rogers was a champion of children, in general, and of public TV (PBS), in particular. He received more than 40 honorary degrees from colleges and universities including Yale University, Carnegie Mellon University and Boston University.
An avid piano player he was the composer and lyricist of over 200 songs and the author of numerous books. I recently read one of his books, Many Ways To Say I Love You.
The dust cover of the book states, “Although children’s “outsides may have changed a lot over the years, their inner needs have remained very much the same. No matter what lies ahead, children always need to know that they are loved and capable of loving.”
In the foreword, his wife, Joanne Rogers, observes, “Guided by Dr. Margaret McFarland, his mentor in his graduate work in child development, Fred learned firsthand what it meant to offer a kind of safe place for children and their closet caregivers. Under her supervision, he began to work directly, one on one, with young children. That is where he learned about providing an extra measure of security that could help strengthen both children and their parents.”
The book deals with four themes: What we bring from our past; how we grow as parents; the many ways of loving each other; and growing as children.
I was curious to see if any academic papers exist regarding the impact Fred Rogers had on childhood development. One paper, generated from Loyola University in Chicago, can be found under the title “Journey to the Neighborhood: An Analysis of Fred Rogers and His Lessons for Educational Leaders” (See https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2096&context=luc_diss)
Fred Rogers passed away in February 2003. His legacy remains embodied in the minds and hearts of those fortunate to raise their children in easier, more gentle times. For today’s parents, increasingly frustrated by the invasion of modern technology into the mental well-being of their children, I highly recommend a revisit to Mister Roger’s Neighbourhood.
Since 1987, Dr. Nieman has served in a community-based pediatric clinic. He currently serves at Centre 70 Pediatrics and has authored three books. He has completed 114 marathons and has maintained a daily running streak since Dec. 16, 2009.
