Is Sesame Street good or bad for children?

Its supporters say it’s first-class TV. The ones against it claim it’s steeping our children in a culture and environment that are alien to them?

What do I think?

I think it’s brilliant television. I also think it will prove to be one of the biggest mistakes the ABC has made.

For the trouble with Sesame Street is not that it’s American. The trouble with it is that it is aimed specifically at the impressionable three to five pre-school age group. And it’s aim is educational, not just entertainment.

Older children can cope with “Superman” and “Bugs Bunny”. They can take it or leave it. They have school and outside interests to counter it.

To a four-year-old, “Sesame Street” IS school. (And let’s not forget, it’s unloaded 10 hours a week.)

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Good or bad, we look like being stuck with “Sesame Street”.

To a tired mother, hunting for an easy babysitter, it’s probably a godsend.

But while the ABC is spinning out its episodes at the rate of two hours a day, I hope at the same time it’s putting a few of its own TV brains to work.

And maybe next year, when we switch our youngsters back from trash cans to garbage tins again, we can come up with something that’s ours… and good.