SpongeBob for 4-Year-Olds? A Sign of America’s Confusion

It’s hard to resist writing about SpongeBob Squarepants, especially when researchers at the University of Virginia unveil a study showing that something about the program might be negatively affecting the short-term thinking skills of four-year-olds.

In a piece for Zocalo Public Square, I’ve used that latest study — which was published online this month in Pediatrics — as a jumping off point for a discussion about a paradox in American society:

American adults seem to be ignorant of what young children may be able to handle in real life at age four. Despite the push for public investments in pre-kindergarten programs, good preschools are still not the norm for most children; education policies continue to treat four-year-olds as if they aren’t ready to be challenged. And yet we park those same children in front of cartoons designed for kids more than twice their age and assume they have the cognitive wherewithal to manage the flood of information streaming their way.

The full article includes details on the U.Va. study and some thoughts on how the viewing of Spongebob is contrary to what we do know about four-year-old children’s capacity for learning, especially when they are thoughtfully guided by an adult or older child who introduces them to new ideas and helps them elaborate on what they know so far.

What do you think? Is this is a fair argument? Are Americans generally confused about what kind of cognitive challenges young children can handle?