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During the 80's, after the profound episode of Mr. Hooper's death, they were not afraid to make small references to his death, in subsequent episodes of the 80's, with memories from Big Bird.
Yet, in the 35th anniversary special, they showed a brief scene of Mr. Hooper, but nothing about death was mentioned. This may be because of the current age that they're supposedly targeting now.
According to Jean Paiget(1896-1980), professor of psychology, children go through four major stages of cognitive development:
Sensorimotor (0-2)
Preoperational (2-7)
Concrete Operational (7-11)
Formal Operations (11 years onward)
And according to this theory, a child's understanding of death develops somewhere in the middle of the preoperational stage (5 or 6) when death is seen as something possibly irreversable and the end for others (though not themselves) and into the preoperational stage when death becomes realistic and children become even more curious about it.
So, if Sesame Workshop is really targeting very young children from about 1 to 4, as it has been said, they may not feel that there is any point in mentioning death now. There will always be some children who are more cognitively advanced for their ages, but they may not feel it is worth doing skits or episodes for the exceptions and not the rules.
Of course, Paiget's development is just one theory, but Jean Paiget tends to be highly regarded among the psychological community, and as much as Sesame Workshop seems to be following psychology these days, there may never be another profound episode about death, as long as they're exclusively targeting such a young audience.
Just some food for thought.
Yet, in the 35th anniversary special, they showed a brief scene of Mr. Hooper, but nothing about death was mentioned. This may be because of the current age that they're supposedly targeting now.
According to Jean Paiget(1896-1980), professor of psychology, children go through four major stages of cognitive development:
Sensorimotor (0-2)
Preoperational (2-7)
Concrete Operational (7-11)
Formal Operations (11 years onward)
And according to this theory, a child's understanding of death develops somewhere in the middle of the preoperational stage (5 or 6) when death is seen as something possibly irreversable and the end for others (though not themselves) and into the preoperational stage when death becomes realistic and children become even more curious about it.
So, if Sesame Workshop is really targeting very young children from about 1 to 4, as it has been said, they may not feel that there is any point in mentioning death now. There will always be some children who are more cognitively advanced for their ages, but they may not feel it is worth doing skits or episodes for the exceptions and not the rules.
Of course, Paiget's development is just one theory, but Jean Paiget tends to be highly regarded among the psychological community, and as much as Sesame Workshop seems to be following psychology these days, there may never be another profound episode about death, as long as they're exclusively targeting such a young audience.
Just some food for thought.
