Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning

The University of Mississippi School of Education

Where Is Mr. Rogers When You Need Him?

Posted on: June 25th, 2018 by Cathy Grace

I did not intend to eavesdrop at the gym, but it was striking that two very athletic young men were having a conversation about Mr. Rogers. Yes, that Mr. Rogers…the guy on television that helped raise generations of children in America. The young men were wishing there was a modern day Mr. Rogers who could make sense of growing up for today’s children as he did for them years ago.

People who followed Fred Rogers know he was a puppeteer and ordained minister who became the host of the TV program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood . What many don’t know is that as a young boy he was shy, suffered from asthma and overweight. Due to his asthma, he was required to stay inside a great deal and felt socially isolated. These early experiences obviously made a lasting impact on how he chose to live his life and shaped his message of the importance of friendship and compatibility with others. Even after his death, his messages of hope, compassion, and acceptance of those different from ourselves is carried on through his center.

In December 1998, in a rare display of anger, Mr. Rogers filed suit against a Texas store for using his likeness on T-shirts, which contained a handgun and the slogan, “Welcome to my ‘hood.” Rogers didn’t simply want the T-shirts discontinued; he wanted them destroyed.  There was no place for violence in his neighborhood and he did not want any confusion about his position. If he was alive today, he would be 90 years old and by all accounts still showing children and their parents an alternative to the meanness we hear and unfortunately see as our children continue to kill one another.

According to a report published in the Washington Post there have been more schoolchildren killed at school this year than military deaths during the same time period. The men who were in conversation at the gym were reminiscing about their childhood experiences and each mentioned how Mr. Rogers set the tone for early socialization in ways their parents couldn’t. He taught young children through puppets and stories about how friends were made and kept, even if they were not always nice or if they looked and acted differently. It was a much gentler time, and authority figures spoke with reason and exercised power through consensus building. During the days of Mr. Rogers, young men and women who were in the armed services were killed doing their duty, fighting in battles for our country, not as high school students going about their daily activities. During the days of Mr. Rogers, young people had disagreements and even came to blows, but with fists, not guns. Sadly, those days are gone. Young people are being killed in greater number on school yards by our own citizens than on battle fields by our enemies.

No one knows what has triggered the actions of the killers who have targeted their peers or what they hoped to accomplish by murdering them. But questions have to be asked “Why this year? “What is different now that is resulting in record numbers of school shootings?” “Are guns easier to get than they were 5 years ago?” Mr. Rogers probably would not attempt to answer the questions posed, but it is safe to say, he would stress the need for additional funding for more mental health services for children, increased supports to families that would reduce domestic violence and addictions such as drugs, alcohol or gambling, and stronger partnerships between parents, physicians and teachers in creating a safe neighborhood like the one Mr. Rogers did all those years ago.

by Dr. Cathy Grace