The Atlantic

Mr. Rogers Had a Simple Set of Rules for Talking to Children

The TV legend possessed an extraordinary understanding of how kids make sense of language.
Source: Gene J. Puskar / AP

For the millions of adults who grew up watching him on public television, Fred Rogers represents the most important human values: respect, compassion, kindness, integrity, humility. On Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the show that he created 50 years ago and starred in, he was the epitome of simple, natural ease.

But as

I write in my forthcoming book, The Good Neighbor: The, Rogers’s placidity belied the intense care he took in shaping each episode of his program. He insisted that every word, whether spoken by a person or a puppet, be scrutinized closely, because he knew that children—the preschool-age boys and girls who made up the core of his audience—tend to hear things literally.

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