Here's your star for today for admitting your special like everyone else...

</sarcasm>

Still, sure we are all special in our own way, but why should we keep saying it if we are all equally special like Mister Rodgers said...

The blame was just shifted from where it belongs to him. Besides, research like this happens all the time and can be manipulated one direction or the other easily... I still say blame family, friends, role models... if they were all pushing the idea too, well they are equally to be blamed.

(Not all family, friends, and role models did this, just some...)

I went to an awards thing for my daughter at the end of school year. She was receiving two awards - no huge deal. There were maybe 40 awards for the entire 7th grade. She was getting a math award and an MVP award for her 7th grade basketball team.

What angered me is that in almost every award given to anyone, the presenter (typically a teacher) would offer up "This doesn't mean that other kids didn't deserve this award" or some other such crap. It cheapens accomplishment and rather than making those who aren't getting an award feel better, it makes the person who actually earned it seem like their accomplishment wasn't really that great.

I have a view of self esteem that while, yes, we are all unique and have something unique to offer, special is something that sets us apart, and that is something that is earned. My daughter works very hard at basketball and has become a special player because of that. There is no better feeling than working at something and becoming good at it. That is where true self esteem comes from - knowing that you can do it it through perseverence and hard work.

I don't think anyone here would disagree with what's being said about "being special" or self esteem. And the point is, neither would have Mr. Rogers. His message cannot be boiled down to his single catch phrase.

Family Communications (parent company for Mr. Rogers Neighborhood) have mounted a detailed defense on their homepage.

Don't Blame Fred

My dad once saw Mr. Rogers naked.

He (my dad) moved to Pittsburgh about 1990, and has related the story to me how shortly thereafter he joined an athletic club and one day walked into the showers, only to be confronted there by Mr. Rogers in the buff.

Anyway, no real relation to this thread, but I enjoy the story and wanted to relate it. Just don't let Fox News hear of it.

Now I've got an image of Mr. Rogers wearing nothing but a cardigan and sneakers.

I find myself wondering about the pigmentation of his genitalia

Yes, but NPR gets a pass because they meet their "progressive" story quota early every month;)

....and the radio too, starting with NPR;)

Thanks Jazz, that pretty much sums it up for me.


Elastic Girl: "Everyone's special Dash"
Dash: "..just another way of saying no one is"

On the flip side of all this is the people who say you only have value if you are a winning sports hero. That your wealth is the only measure of your value. That only people who work in industries they approve of are special, contributing human beings.

Bull crap.