George Giuliani, a special education professor at Long Island University in New York, has recently proclaimed that the long-standing cartoon, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (along with the song by the same name) actually promotes poor choices and messages among children.
You remember the cartoon, right? Because of his differences, Rudolph is ostracized from the North Pole and joins several other toys, animals and even a dentist-wannabe elf on the Island of Misfits. Eventually, the Misfits are able to return to the North Pole – on a foggy evening - and use their gifts to save Christmas. Of course, they all went down in history.
Giuliani, however, contends that this story sends many sad and unnecessary lessons. One, it teaches children to let bullies rule their lives, as the misfits leave the area instead of standing up for themselves. Two, it teaches children that unless they have an extraordinary gift to offer their peers, they will never be accepted. He also contends that the movie actually teaches children how to bully others. And finally, it teaches children that some people take a harmless holiday classic way too seriously for their own good.
I remember vividly getting the TV guide out of the Sunday paper and circling when Rudolph would be airing on one of the three channels we got. Then I’d fret and fuss and fume until M*A*S*H went off and Rudolph was finally on. I’d cry when the misfits left, and I’d cry when the misfits save the day. I’d be scared when the Abominable Snowman tried to catch the misfits, then I’d laugh when they were all friends again.
This was the routine every single year until high school and I started spending my time bullying other kids since I’d learned how to do it so flawlessly thanks to Comet, the bully-reindeer.
I jest, of course, I didn’t learn how to bully from the cartoon. I learned how to bully from bullies!!
That’s not to say the cartoon was without its lessons. One year, probably third grade or so, the day after watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, I noticed a boy in my class was standing out on the other side of the tree at the far-end of the playground during recess. I knew in my heart-of-hearts that he must be feeling some kind of sad or he’d be playing with our classmates. I ran out to the tree and looked him square in the face; I told him that he was a good person, and I was so sorry he felt sad and he was a good draw-er (because I’d seen the doodles of cars on his notebook) and I asked him to just come back and play with everyone else instead of running off to the Island of Misfits.
He told me to just go away because he was playing hide and seek, and I was giving away his prime hiding spot.
So I missed the mark in that situation, but the point is that because of Rudolph and the other misfits, I had become empathic (but not intuitive apparently) and I don’t think that’s a bad trait for our kids to have.
