Barney The Dinosaur, A Good Influence Or Bad?

Barney, as no doubt, most people are aware is a walking, talking purple dinosaur with a sing song friendly attitude and his own US TV show and it seems that few "creatures" invoke such strong emotions amongst parents ... the mere mention of his name spawns in many cases either unadulterated adulation or utter contempt.

Since it will become obvious within the next few sentences I'll admit ahead of time that I base myself in the second camp and the remainder of this article will be an unashamed attempt to persuade you of the wisdom of my ways.

Let's take a close look at the show...

Lookswise the show is populated by stunningly good-looking US children i.e. beautiful, slim, kind, innocent, loving & caring and are about as "peachy-pie" as anything we've ever heard of outside the US (though some credit must be given to the show for its choice of children of different age ranges and racial types). After a while you become aware of "the sounds" ... phrases such as "super-dee-duper" uttered in cloyingly saccharine voices, irritatingly false giggles and exaggerated gestures. This in combination with the looks and mannerisms of the children, to my mind, mimics no real aspect childhood.

Barney The Dinosaur does model "good" behaviour but only if "good" is defined in a specific way and once that is accepted the shows main thrust appears to be to deny anything that is negative or not "good". The children demonstrate that negative emotions can be denied and that if everyone is happy those negativities simply vanish. Furthermore it promotes dubious concepts such as conformity to group behaviour and acceptance of leadership by others rather than individual development and the beauty of individual ideas. It will come as little surprise that I consider Barney The Dinosaur neither wholesome nor good!

The show makes a special effort to teach the benefits of doing everything identically with others and the show children never display jealousies, rivalries, anger, tension, fear or any other negative feeling. Emotions are simply not dealt with. In doing this the show appears to promote dubious concepts such as "you are only a good person when you have good emotions" and "that problems don't exist" ... are these really the kind of messages we wish to send our children?

Another somewhat disturbing aspect of the show is that no fun can occur until Barney arrives. Barney tells the children what they should do. The children ask Barney what they should be doing next. Imagination is not encouraged and Barney will even tell the children what the pictures they have drawn mean. Make believe happens it is true but not until Barney suggests it when all such activity appears to be subjugated to the leader in herd-like behaviour ... individuality is not encouraged. Throughout this Barney acts as sole guide and help and I fail to see how this is can be a good model for creative play or that it is preparing the children in any way for life in the real world, let alone team or leadership roles.

Again I return to the age range because though the range is good it also is apparent that the children are somewhat older than they are portrayed to be ... this age difference is highly noticeable and their behaviour does not reflect the way in which viewing children deal with other kids of similar ages. This may lead to problems in the way children deal with others.

Having discussed the show with other parents I am eventually confronted with the "so what" attitude so, what exactly is so wrong with the values that the show does promote? In denying negativities and the many differences between us the show encourages children to not recognise and deal with unpleasant realities. Though Barney offers, as one author puts it, "an unceasing river of giggles and unconditional love" it also portrays the world as one-dimensional and insists that all within it must be happy and all problems be resolved immediately.

Barney & Friends does not mimic real life or even try to teach anything about dealing with the problems of real life and that is a worrying precedent. I believe that the purpose of a children's show is to teach the children something of value (though, admittedly, to do so in an entertaining manner) and that those values must be the values we, as a society, cherish. But in Barney & Friends desires and wishes are fulfilled without challenge and effort/reality ignored.

The show carries a heavy implication that if children don't "play nicely" or that if adults don't behave the way Barney does then something is deeply wrong. It's almost like child psychology gone mad.

Whilst researching this article, I noted quotes from a number of professional individuals ... mainly psychologists. I'm not the greatest proponent of psychology, it's one of those disciplines that tries hard to be a science and fails ... badly! Nevertheless the following quotes may be of interest.

Carol Hooven, a University of Washington psychologist notes the three most common inept parenting styles:

• Ignorance of feelings altogether & treating emotional upsets as trivial.
• Being too easygoing, leaving children to their own devices in handling emotional storms, or trying bribes to get them to stop being mad or angry.
• Being contemptuous, showing no respect for children's feelings, criticizing the children harshly. Telling children that your feelings don't matter, so just pretend your emotions don't exist except happiness.

Lisa Korman, M.D., a child psychiatrist in New York City, says that "Using denial as a primary coping strategy, means that, unlike PBS's luminaries such as Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood, Barney and Friends does not help children learn to tolerate sorrow, pain, frustration and failure."

Jeanette Hainer, an NYC family therapist says "Children can't learn to walk without falling. If you always carried them to prevent the inevitable scrape, both their muscles and their social skills would be severely underdeveloped. Similarly, sugar-coating painful moments can diminish a child's ego strength."