As a child, I loved Sesame Street. It was really basic then, because it was new. Yes, I started watching it from its debut in 1969. I was three; I was the target audience thank you. But, it’s roots are in education and learning. So imagine my surprise when a friend of mine told me of a segment on Sesame Street that used bad grammar…

The segment is called, It’s Becoming a Habitat. The premise: Teach kids what a habitat is and what different habitats look like. The problem: The lyrics to the song they used to introduce each habitat.

So, the first habitat of which they speak is the beach. Let me run through the lyrics for you: “Where’s it at… the beach, the beach, it’s a habitat… the beach, the beach.” Where’s it at? Really? Anyone wanna take this one?

I can’t believe Sesame Street has reduced to bad grammar to satisfy a rap version of their song. I love rap, but, I hate bad grammar. We should all hate bad grammar, especially Sesame Street!

I remember the exact day I learned that the word AT is a preposition and prepositions should never be used at the end of a sentence. I was about 8 years old; My aunt said, “We have to go get your cousin.” I replied, “Where’s she at?” My aunt responded, “Behind that preposition, AT!” I have since not spoken that way nor written that way.

In fact, whenever I find myself in a situation where writing a preposition at the end of a sentence presents itself, I back-track through the sentence and strategically place an, in which… or with which to… instead.

I get that all television shows that want to survive need to evolve and stay current, but Sesame Street? Completely selling out to ratings and pop culture has to halt at Sesame Street…

So I offer this… Make it cool, make it fun, make it current. But keep it correct. If it can’t be correct, you’re Sesame Street – you can’t do it! Keep trying until you find a way to make it work and make it right.

As we know, children are very impressionable. The point of Sesame Street is to be a place for kids to learn. They can learn bad grammar in the streets and we don’t need a bad rap on Sesame Street as well when we already have plenty of them on the radio.

The value of education is too high to sacrifice the best from an icon. Confirm your status EVERYDAY Sesame Street… Be an icon…

http://www.sesamestreet.org/play#media/video_9a218501-d3e7-4caf-8af7-b64131069fe4