Colorful Minds Learn Differently: The Electric Company

A great learning tool for colorful minds is getting ready to make a comeback from its shocking past!

The Sesame Workshop is preparing to launch a new Electric Company (TEC) Series in 2008.

For years it was rumored that the PBS series, which ran from 1971-1977, and further in reruns until 1985, was harmful to young readers.

The truth is... PBS ran out of funding.

The Electric Company for those too young to remember... was a high energy reading workshop geared toward the elementary school set but...

TEC was so entertaining it could hold the entire family's attention.... which was a blessing since illiteracy reached an alarming peak in the decade of decadence.

The show used regular comedy sketches, a collection of colorful characters, music, and cartoons to develop reading skills.

If it were not for the Electric Company, I would have been totally lost as a dyslexic child growing up in the era that believed dyslexics were just lazy students.

I probably would have given up on reading completely, but...

the original 1970s show really helped bring me up to level with my peers and... inspired a lifelong love of books and writing.

Here's how TEC will help your colorful kid too:

1) TEC Caters To The Left Sided Creative Thought Process

Neurological studies have shown that the left side of the brain plays a major role in happy feelings, and...

that those "happy feelings" are necessary for enhanced long-term memory.

Using music and humor, TEC is able to facilitate transfer of difficult phonetics, and sight words into long term memory so reading gets easier.

Think of easier reading as positive reinforcement for the soul.

TEC also created songs to help kids remember spelling and reading rules with hits like, "Silent E" and "L-Y" (see video).

2) TEC Uses Mathematical Formulas To Facilitate Reading

In first grade, my colorful kid tried to add letters with plus signs, and tried break them down with minus signs, example, C+A+T= CAT.

It didn't really help but...I found out that she did this because...

Math makes logical sense to many colorful kids, sounds and letters don't... so they often attempt to turn words into mathematical formulas.

TEC breaks words up into groups instead of individual letters.

Instead of enfourcing the rules of spelling and phonics like...

"A" makes this sound and "T" makes that sound, unless... they're pared with a certain letter, or come after another letter, or... blah.. blah.. blah...

TEC said... Hey You Guyyyys!

The letters "T" and "H" put together sounds like "th" and... the letters "A" and "T" is where its "at"...You can add and subtract these "sounds" to make words.

TH+AT=THAT

If that doesn't hit home for you... try reading each individual letter and sound like some of our colorful kids do...

T+H+A+T= Tee+H+Aye+Tee

TeeHAyeTee might spell something in another language, but it's almost exhausting putting all of that together in a colorful mind.

As a colorful adult ... Th+AT makes more sense to me.

3) TEC Sometimes Scrambles Sentences and Phrases

One thing colorful kids are good at doing is filling in the blanks.

In fact, once colorful kids are able to read, if something is missing... they will correct it mentally...

which makes it really hard for them to edit their personal writings. As a colorful writer, I still struggle daily with spelling and grammar errors.

But as a child watching TEC, I got a lot of reward from being able to read the scrambled sentence.

How is That?

Colorful kids are often gifted with being able to read backwards, upside down, and in circles better or equal to ...their ability to read from left to right.

Being quick to read a scramble like... I am cute very...

offers the colorful kid the reward of accomplishment.

And better yet, the pride comes from inside...

And...inner pride raises self esteem, which is so important for colorful kids.

The Electric Company Today

Even though the original TEC show was low TECH its still got a lot to offer.

Until the new and probably hi-tech, and hi-definition version creates static along cable lines, the old TEC has found a new medium to reach the colorful kids of today... or

bring back fond memories of the psychedelic dreams and disco days of a bygone decade.

TEC episodes can be downloaded at iTunes, or DVDs can be found online, and in a few choice stores near you.

This may sound simple, but TEC's multi-sensory learning helps colorful minds thrive.