The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
(A timeless collection of wisdom on love, friendship, resp...)
A timeless collection of wisdom on love, friendship, respect, individuality, and honesty from the man who has been a friend to generations of Americans There are few personalities who evoke such universal feelings of warmth as Fred Rogers. An enduring presence in American homes for over 30 years, his plainspoken wisdom continues to guide and comfort many. The World According to Mister Rogers distills the legacy and singular worldview of this beloved American figure. An inspiring collection of stories, anecdotes, and insights--with sections devoted to love, friendship, respect, individuality, and honesty, The World According to Mister Rogers reminds us that there is much more in life that unites us than divides us. Culled from Fred Rogers' speeches, program transcripts, books, letters, and interviews, along with some of his never-before-published writings, The World According to Mister Rogers is a testament to the legacy of a man who served and continues to serve as a role model to millions.
(Fred Rogers opens the door for adopted children and their...)
Fred Rogers opens the door for adopted children and their parents to safely talk about their good and sometimes not-so-good feelings in a book about the joy of belonging and the love that unites families.?Rogers? unaffected delivery has a way of making scary things unscary, which should help parents as much as kids.? --The Bulletin of the Center for Children?s Books?The premise of this book?that it is good for families to talk about feelings?is a welcome one to apply to the subject of adoption.? --School Library Journal
American minister Fred Rogers is the host and creator of the popular and critically acclaimed Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The program is the longest running children's television program on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Background
Fred Rogers was born on March 20, 1928 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, USA. He was the only child of his parents till he was eleven years old. His parents later adopted a baby girl named Elaine.
A lonely, sickly, and shy child, Rogers contented himself by playing the piano and with his puppets. He looked forward to spending quality time with his grandfather McFeely, who encouraged Rogers to be all that he could be and loved him unequivocally. This deep love was evidenced one day as their visit was drawing to a close, and Rogers's grandfather told him something that would profoundly change his life. Rogers related to Life magazine that his grandfather had said, "You know, you made this day a really special day. Just by being yourself. There's only one person in the world like you. And I happen to like you just the way you are. " This reaffirming message became the guiding principle in all of Rogers's work.
Education
After graduating from high school in 1946, Rogers attended Dartmouth College to study music. He left after one year and enrolled in Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Rogers graduated magna cum laude from Rollins with a bachelor's degree in music composition in 1951.
During his seven-year stint as the behind-the-scenes puppeteer, writer, and co-producer of the show, Rogers started to work part-time on his master of divinity degree at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He eventually earned his degree in 1962 and was subsequently ordained as a Presbyterian minister by the Pittsburgh Presbytery.
In addition, he has received thirty honorary doctorates from universities and colleges throughout the United States.
Career
When he was home on spring break from Rollins in 1951, Rogers was watching television and saw a slapstick, pie-in-the-face comedy routine. This program compelled him to go into television, because Rogers thought that the new mass communication medium of television was not living up to its full potential. Shortly after he graduated from Rollins, he obtained a job at the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in New York City where he worked as an assistant producer and floor director for such programs as the Your Lucky Strike Hit Parade, the Kate Smith Hour, the Voice of Firestone, and the NBC Opera Theatre.
In 1953, Rogers gave up a promising career as a network television producer at NBC and moved back to Pennsylvania, where he helped to establish the nascent Pittsburgh public television station WQED. Of the rather abrupt career shift, Rogers told Broadcasting and Cable, "[it] seemed to be the way to go for me. " Initially Rogers was reluctant to get involved with children's programming, but he picked it up when no one else at the station was willing to do it. With children's programming he found a ready-made outlet for his puppetry when he, along with Josie Carey, produced the hour-long show the Children's Corner for National Educational Television (NET) in 1954. This show gave birth to a number of Rogers's beloved puppet friends, including Daniel Striped Tiger and King Friday XIII.
It was also during this time that Rogers started to forge a lifelong association and friendship with his mentor, Dr. Margaret McFarland. McFarland had helped Dr. Benjamin Spock establish the child care development program at the University of Pittsburgh in 1952. It was through her work guiding and shaping the department's program that Rogers had met McFarland. She had served as a mentor to him when he was enrolled in graduate work in the child care development program. After his studies they had stayed in close contact, and McFarland became an informal consultant to Rogers and subsequently his show until she died in 1988. Rogers informed the Los Angeles Times that McFarland had told him once to "'offer the kids who you really are because they'll know what's really important to you. ' She was always encouraging me to go to the piano on the program [Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]. She said, 'they'll find their own way, but show them that there's a way that really means something to you. "'
In 1962, Rogers was offered the opportunity to create a fifteen-minute children's program for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto, Ontario. The show was named Misterogers by the head of the CBC's children's programming department. This program, which he not only developed but produced as well, marked the first appearance of Rogers in front of the camera. The fifteen-minute segments were hosted by Rogers and incorporated many of the elements that later would be found in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Two years later he left the CBC and moved back to Pittsburgh and to WQED.
Rogers had obtained the broadcast rights to the Misterogers episodes from the CBC and began to combine them into half hour segments called Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The new show was broadcast on WQED and distributed through the Eastern Educational Network from 1965 to 1967. In 1967, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation agreed to fund Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, thus making it available to all the public television stations throughout the United States. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was first broadcast across the country in early 1968. Rogers has served as host and executive producer of the show since its inception. In the early 1970s, he established Family Communications, Inc. , a nonprofit organization which was committed to producing family-oriented materials for mass distribution.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood has differed from many other children's television programs because Rogers has actively sought to converse with his preschool audience, not to talk at them. He also speaks to them on their level and holds a genuine interest and concern in their lives and problems. The focus and emphasis of each show is on children and their individual needs and feelings. Just as his grandfather McFeely had done for him, Rogers has sought to validate the preschoolers' existence and lives. He has endeavored to do this by constantly reinforcing their positive images of self-worth and reminding them that they are special individuals who are well loved.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Rogers branched out and released six children's music albums. He also has written several books for and about his preschool-aged audience. The books deal with such diverse, real-life events and episodes as going to the doctor, going to school, going to day care, step families, cancer, and death. These issues and the assorted feelings and emotions which arise in response to them have formed the basis of many of the more than 700 episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Many of the shows have been rebroadcast over the years (especially the first day of school series), although Rogers has tried to create about fifteen or so new episodes annually to make sure that the show remains relevant and in touch with the youth of today. He has also produced the PBS programs Old Friends … New Friends which aired from 1978 to 1981 and Fred Rogers' Heroes which aired in 1994.
Rogers told the Boston Globe that the essence of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is "talking about how important the inside [of a person] is in comparison to the outside. Whether the children can use that message right then, at least they can hear it and in some way be comforted by it. " Rogers believes that the real test of the show's merit and worth comes when the television is turned off and the show's message is put into practice in the preschooler's day-to-day interactions in the real world.
The strength of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is its constant focus on building and nurturing the self-esteem of young children.
Quotations:
"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. " To this day, especially in times of "disaster, " I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world. "
"There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind. "
"The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self. "
"Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me. "
"What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win too. Even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then. "
Membership
In 1992, he was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, the national fraternity for men of music.
Connections
He met his future wife, Sara Joanne Byrd at Rollins College. They married in the year 1952 and had two children James Rogers and John Rogers.