Shanghai Sesame Street Teaches Kids College Level Words

Little Xiao Xiao wakes up every Saturday morning, eats a jian bing, and turns on channel 21.

Because Sesame Street is on.

“I call the puppets Da Bai (hazmat workers)!” screamed an excited Xiao Xiao. “They teach me so many good English words. Of course, (President) Xi is the one controlling them so I owe all my learning to him. Who knew he was so great at puppetry!”

Ernie holds a letter d in his hand and sings while Cookie Monster dines on his dessert of choice. The word of today, of course, is ‘draconian’, and Xiao Xiao has probably repeated it a million times.

According to the Shanghai Education Bureau, children are far more likely to act like adults if they are treated like adults. And adults are not to be trusted to make their own decisions so they must be treated like smaller, younger versions of adults. In actuality they are treated like children who are treated like adults, so same same.

The Education Bureau went on to say that ‘every rose has its thorn’ and many more important cliches.

Li Wei, the Education Secretary, explained the mindset in this way: “Our little birds won’t ever learn how to fly unless we take them to the highest trees (probably redwoods) and shove them out of the nest. Over and over again. It’s true that some will die but it, come on, it’s just a metaphor. This is the guiding principle behind all we do. While the rest of the world is learning ‘Hello’ our children will know how to say ‘Bureaucracy’ and ‘Hegemony’.”

Xiao Xiao’s parents love the program. “Xiao Xiao is a genius! He goes around saying ‘A is for arbitrary’, so of course we let him watch. We have no idea what it means but it must be important if the Da Bai–I mean puppets–say it.”

His dad agreed. “Yeah, it gets annoying but he seems happy.”

 

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