Introduction of Philosophical Ideas in Children's TV: Arthur!

 

Yusra Mohammed 

H01 Group 4 

Midterm Report Part 3 

Good day my friends! Well, here we are. We have landed at the end of this series. I have honestly enjoyed it! I got to share my vast knowledge of Arthur with you all, you discovered I had a slightly unhealthy obsession with the show, you've hopefully taken away some insight on how Arthur is I’m fact the superior tv show because of its various philosophical innuendos, I was allowed to write my midterm using contractions, AND I discovered I am a big fan of this whole blogging concept! What’s not to love?

 For our last topic, we are going to discuss the importance of sticking true to your beliefs. This topic can, of course, apply to religion; however, in this post I can’t post that because (as it is a kid’s tv show) there isn't too much talk of religion. (Although some was mentioned in my first post click here to check it out!) I am going to focus on just beliefs. The word beliefs is a broad word, in my own opinion (I think it's important to know a person’s definition of a word so you fully understand the magnitude of what they are saying) a belief is: an idea or proposition that you feel strongly about.

 How important are beliefs? Why to some people have some beliefs that others don’t? how do you go about those beliefs?

All good questions. Today, we are going to analyze a few third graders responses to the above stated questions.

Sue Ellen 

The first instance I want to talk about involves Sue Ellen. In the episode “Sue Ellen Chicken’s Out”, the gangs favorite hang out spot (The Sugar Bowl) is scheduled to be torn down and rebuilt as a fast- food chain called Chicken Lickin’. Sue Ellen is completely taken aback. She tries to spur her friends into action while imagining an ideal protest:

 

I think it’s important to point out what her mom said: “If it really bothers you, you should do something about it.” What awesome advice! We complain about various things every day! Imagine if we DID SOMETHING about it? I’m not saying we all go protest in front of city hall or go on a strike, there are different approaches. Perhaps looking at things with a new perspective or confronting a person about something they said that bothered you would work in your situation? As the episode goes on you discover whether her friends stand by her side or she battles onward by herself.

 D.W. 

 The 2nd example comes from the infamous 4 year old D.W! Can you remember how we used to think the world of our teacher? I can tell you right now, when my sister was in elementary school she just went on and on. “Mrs. Smith said this, Mrs. Smith said that, Mrs. Smith said I was the best reader” Sound familiar? Well, DW is no different; everything changes the day she is terrified of school because of her first fire drill. She’s so frightened by fire and what the safety drills are for that she vows never to return to school again. Her dad comes up with a plan, he makes DW the “fire warden” of the house. She channels this fear in a more positive way. She prepares an evacuation plan and helps teach her family what to do in the event of a fire. When the fire drill actually happens DW helps guide everyone in her class:

 

DW channeled her fear and conquered it. She learned a lot about fire safety in the process, and believed very strongly that if everyone was prepared and did as they were told everything would be fine.

 Kinda makes you want to do something with your thoughts and beliefs, huh?

Well folks, this is it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this series on Arthur! Hopefully we will dig deeper to find philosophical ties in the most unlikely of places in the future! Until next time! Good bye for now!

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Total word count: 2144