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The Israeli-Palestinian confrontation: Education and textbooks
The point of the history textbook program is to instill knowledge and understanding of other countries in your minds. Raśl Escalante from Mexico discusses a novel approach: "My wife, who manages "community relations" for General Electric in Mexico, recently had contact with people from Sesame Street, and was astounded by the depth of thought that that organization puts into its mass education efforts. Apparently Sesame Street programs that run in different countries are tailor-made for each: local actors, local issues and customs, etc. The only region where they have decided to run a single program for two different nations (I hope I'm not being too imprecise in my language) is in Israel-Palestine, apparently with very good results (I can't begin to imagine how these could be measured). Just another example of involvement by concerned citizens. Has anybody had contact (indirect I'd suppose) with Israeli programming of Sesame Street? Is it well received by Israelis and Arabs?" An interesting idea. "Sesame Street" is aimed at children from 2 to 4. History textbooks aim at an older group.
Ronald Hilton - 5/5/02