When did kid-friendly content become a threat to literacy?
By: Aissatou Diallo
Children are glued to their screens more than ever. They have nearly unlimited access to the vast internet, and yet many parents miss the opportunity to acclimate their children to educational programs.
If a child cries, a screen is jammed into their hands with overstimulating cartoons like Cocomelon to quiet them. The videos are almost hypnotic in the way they capture children’s attention with overly colorful characters and backgrounds, repetitive singing styles, and constant giggling.
From the perspective of an aunt with a three-year-old niece who will be starting pre-school next year, there is a concerning lack of educational programs for children to watch, which is concerning for the future educational level of the United States. From the perspective of a young adult woman currently in college, not enough people in my age group watched the academic programs provided by stations like PBS when we were growing up.
From the planet Lexicon, hails PBS’s own superpowered heroine, WordGirl. Her powers include super hearing, super strength, flight, and, most of all, her extraordinary vocabulary and intelligence. WordGirl, the alter ego of 10-year-old alien girl Becky Botsford, was sent to Earth following the destruction of her home planet, much like Superman, only she had her monkey sidekick, Captain Huggy Face.
The show ran from 2007 to 2013 for half an hour, split into 11-minute segments with two feature words. Words like “redundant, “diversion,” “irritable,” and “vanquish” were chosen according to academic guidelines. Owing its parentage to Scholastic, WordGirl went beyond the screens and into book fairs for children to enjoy even more adventures and new words. But where is WordGirl now that we need her?
With today’s declining literacy rate and a social culture hostile to complex thoughts, or viewing words like “sentiment,” “meticulous,” and “contrary” as advanced vocabulary, WordGirl feels like both a time capsule and a warning. “Every page a child reads is a step towards their future,” said Dr.Ingrid Haynes-Taylor. “ Literacy doesn’t just teach letters–it teaches possibilities.” Yet as of 2025, according to the National Literacy Institute, 54% of U.S. adults read at or below the level of a sixth grader, and 64% of America’s fourth-graders do not read proficiently.
Following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, students across all age brackets were allowed to return to schools to help restore normalcy. There was hope that returning to schools would help recover the learning loss during the lockdown, but students were no longer motivated. The U.S. is currently ranked 36th in world literacy.
Students aren’t interested, and there is a quickly decreasing number of educators willing to help unmotivated students. It’s a vicious cycle with sabotage around every corner. It isn’t just children who are no longer giving viewership to PBS. The current presidential administration has been putting pressure on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “cease funding to NPR and PBS… to the maximum extent allowed by law. Not only that, but the educators who do wish to better their students are underfunded and under supported by this country.
A child’s intelligence is far more advanced than is often assumed. Their capacity to learn, absorb, and interact with the world around them is remarkable. For instance, my three-year-old niece was able to operate her parents’ phone and TV to get to YouTube by simply watching them and mimicking the repeated movements. This is proof that children constantly observe and recognize patterns.
What children need isn’t strict guidance at every step of their development, but instead opportunities to develop their natural learning skills. “Kids who enter school with a vocabulary of 20,000 words will have a lot more success than those who enter with a vocabulary of 2,000,” said Deborah Forte, the president of Scholastic Media, and the producer of WordGirl.
These shows don’t pressure them to have good grades; they help children learn to nurture essential human skills such as empathy, conflict resolution, and cooperation. When they see characters like Becky Botsford navigate challenges by apologizing, sharing, or helping one another, it is not just a vocabulary lesson; they are absorbing social lessons and learning to understand themselves and others.
