Any Canadian who was a kid in the late 1960’s to the middle of the 1990’s would remember Mr. Dress-up. A show where the camera follows along with where Mr. Dress-up goes, his puppets who are always learning new lessons, and his kind warm smile. Compared to today’s shows, Mr. Dress-up was slow and is not very interesting, but when you watch Mr. Dress-up, it makes you feel like things are simple and comfortable as though you are with a father, grandfather, or uncle. Canadians who grew up with this wonderful show would feel same way. J.J. McCullough, however, doesn’t share the opinion that this was a wonderful children’s show as he makes clear in his YouTube video. (McCullough, 2018, 00: 01:00) From an early childhood educator perspective, this show seems to teach the essential skills that will help young viewers throughout their lifetime in a way that children will effectively learn these concepts. Although the show may fall short in production value and certain modern early childhood education essentials, such as diversity, it seems that the positive benefits of the show outweigh the negative aspects.
Mr. Dress-up is a great example of how children should learn.
Children learn through play, through experience, and through problem solving (Dietze & Kashin, 2012, P31). As an example, when you watch the episode “The Antique Radio” (Kersey, 2020, 00:00:30), Mr. Dress-up is doing some gardening while miming to the viewers which tools he is using and asking the children to guess what they are. He gives a short pause to allow the children an opportunity to imagine what it is and to guess along with him. Also, in the “The Antique Radio” (Kersey, 2020, 00:10:45), Mr. Dress-up tried to put his tools back to shed, but the door was stuck, so he shaved the door edge with a planer to fix it. He showed how to use those tools in a safe and effective way to his viewers, but also with a little bit of amusement silliness.
Of course, we cannot talk about Mr. Dress-up without mentioning his ‘Tickle Trunk’. The ‘Tickle Trunk’ is a wonderful example of dramatic play. “Dramatic play is one of the most important forms of play” (Smilansky & Shefatya, 1990). Dramatic play gives children an idea about how to engage themselves to the world through play. “Dramatic play is connected with early learner’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development” (Benson, 2004). Children learn how to express themselves with these creative dramatic playtime settings by expanding their imagination and creation. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia (Mullen, 2018) Mr. Dress-up had more than 4000 episodes over 29 years. Think about how many times young viewers of the show opened the ‘Tickle Trunk’ every weekday watching Mr. Dress-up with excited expectations.
Mr. Dress-up Contains all Seven Essentials Skills to Learn for Children.
“There are seven essential skills for children to learn that will serve them through their lives: focus and self-control, perspective talking, communication, making connections, critical thinking, taking on challenges, and self-directed engaged learning” (Dietze & Kashin et al., 2012, P36, As cited in textbook Galinsky, 2010, P36). Research indicates that TV shows benefit children aged 2-5 in their development of language and cognitive skills (Jusoff, 2009, P153). This is the targeted age group that Mr. Dress-up is aiming for, with special focus on preschoolers. Each episode of Mr. Dress-up contains 4-5 essential skills for children. Every episode communicates these skills and connects them throughout the progress of the episode. The essential skill of communication refers to our ability to understanding language and how to communicate with each other. The making connections skill are what helps us become a flexible thinker (Dietze & Kashin, 2012, P36). They are both connected to language and cognitive development. “Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers will learn and expand upon their language though activities. Talking and singing. Reading and book-based activities. Drawing and writing.” (Gan, 2023, Slide 32-34) During the episodes, Mr. Dress-up is talking to his viewers, telling stories with real-time hand drawings, singing for them, and reading books with cartoon drawings. These essential skills are not only very important for children to learn, but it is also very important for when they become adults as well. He is teaching his young viewers life skills.
Culture diversity was missing in Mr. Dress-up.
Although Mr. Dress-up supports children’s development in many ways, there didn’t appear to be much in the way of cultural diversity. When you study modern early childhood education in Canada, cultural diversity is certainly one of the most important concepts to understand and teach. Many children in this country come from a different part of the world, will have been part of a different culture, could have a different belief system, and may not share the same values. As an early childhood educator, we respect individual family’s culture, beliefs, and values. We respect the things that make each family and child unique and encourage them to be who truly they are. Educators communicate with each child’s family and get to know their child and their heritage. To be truly inclusive, childcare professionals need to respect the children’s culture and beliefs to better support the families who come to rely on their care. When educators plan for their curriculum, this inclusiveness must influence their program. That way children can celebrate their own unique cultures as well as value each other’s. We learn and experience from each other because we are all different. If Mr. Dress-up had more focus on inclusiveness and diversity, it could have been the one of the greatest children’s TV show of all time. From that era of culture in Canada, it seems a lack of diversity was a common thing.
After watching the episodes, it is hard to agree with McCullough’s assessment that this should be considered an awful children’s show from Canada because this had everything you could need on a kid’s show. Shows today have become fancy, very well-organized shows, so it seems boring at first. It is, however, a very warm and kind show which simply lacks the stimulation or production value you get with shows nowadays. It moved slowly at a kid’s pace so children could have time to think and understand what is going on. Mr. Dress-up gives an opportunity for the viewers to problem solve when the time came during the show. The show also masterfully incorporates real-time drawings into story time which is a wonderful way to help children develop their imagination and communication skills. Not only does he draw well, but he also draws along with his viewer’s imagination. Mr. Dress-up has rhymes, drama play, literature, and arts and crafts. These are tools which all early childhood education centers should use for children’s development as well. It is no wonder that Mr. Dress-up supported children’s development and entertained them for nearly 3 decades.
References
Benson, T. R. (2004, August). The importance of dramatic play. Retrieved October 13, 2008, from http://www.pbs.org/teachers/earlychildhood/articles/dramaticplay.html
Bow Valley College (2023). Chapter 10 : Language and Literacy [PowerPoint slides].
https://d2l.bowvalleycollege.ca
Dietze, B., & Kashin, D. (2015). Empowering Pedagogy for Early Childhood Education (1st ed.). Pearson Canada.
J.J. McCullough. (2018, July 21). 5 AWFUL kids’ shows from CANADA [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw_N611pGeA
Jusoff, K. (2009b, July 31). ERIC - EJ1065705 - Television and Media Literacy in Young Children: Issues and Effects in Early Childhood, International Education Studies, 2009-Aug. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1065705
Mark Kersey. (2020, May 5). Mr Dressup- “The Antique Radio”- FULL EPISODE -With Mark, Granny, and Chester. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1nFyB_NXls
Mr. Dressup. (Mullen, 2018). The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mr-dressup