Did you know that Cookie Monster speaks Albanian and Serbian? Or that Kami, a South African Muppet sings in Zulu?

Neither did I until I watched this fascinating documentary about the Sesame Workshop and its co-productions of Sesame Street in over 20 countries. The World According To Sesame Street explores  the challenges of leveraging a successful learning tool in different cultural contexts, and navigating power, access and cultural differences all along the way. The film focuses on four co-productions of the show: Sisimpur in Bangladesh; Rruga Sesam and Ulica Sezam in Kosovo; and Takalani Sesame in South Africa.

There’s a lot about this film to highlight and explore – but I think what has stuck with me the most is this:

“Even hardened revolutionaries who have fought in difficult political struggles…understand the power of offering some hope and ways of working out problems [to their children]. How does politics enter into what we’re doing? Well, I guess it has everything to do with what we’re doing – but it also has nothing to do with it.”

The work has everything to do with politics, and nothing to do with it at all. It is easy to make this connection because Sesame Street is working with issues at a child’s level. The person interviewed in the film goes on to say, “children are way better at this kind of humanization than we adults are.”

I think it’s true – that our work is both political (which is easy for us to recognize) and not political at all (much harder, I think). The film offered me the opportunity to see how taking a child’s view can shift how we adults engage in and think about the change we are creating.

What would a child see as the essence of *your* work?

p.s. Curious about the behind-the-scenes history of Sesame Street? I’m currently reading Street Gang, and finding out lots of interesting stuff…