Once upon a time, it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood

As a young man grappling with what to do with his life, Fred Rogers discovered that children’s television was basically terrible.

And so, he did something about it.

He learned how to make television, made connections with people doing ground-breaking research in early childhood learning, and invested in a fine collection of cardigan sweaters. The result was his beloved, iconic program Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Maxwell King is the author of the first full-length biography of the man who was Mr. Rogers, “The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers.” He spoke about how Rogers forged his unique path and his impact on children’s television history at The Seattle Public Library Central Library on October 29.

The panel discussion portion included Craig Stewart and Bruce McCaw of the Apex Foundation and Harvard Professor Junlei Li.

KUOW’s Sonya Harris recorded the event.

Highlights from Maxwell King's talk

On Mr. Rogers getting his start

One of his teachers at the seminary said, ‘Well, Fred, when you graduate, what church are you going to go have your ministry in?’ And Fred Rogers said, ‘No, I want to have a ministry to children on television.’ And after the teacher explained to Fred that he was crazy, he said, ‘You know, if you’re interested in children, you should go over to the University of Pittsburgh.

On what he learned about childhood education

Fred Rogers had the good fortune to be dropped into the middle of this petri dish of creativity around early childhood education. And what they were learning back then was that the old Victorian notions of childhood were completely backwards, completely wrong. The old Victorian notions were that a child should be seen but not heard, that childhood was sort of this malaise and if you put children away for a while they would recover from it and they would become grownups.

And what they were learning at Pitt back then was that it was the opposite of that: That the first few years of childhood, from birth to three, are the critical time when learning takes place, when language develops, when the brain develops. And that if those first few years are ignored, the potential of the child is greatly reduced later. 

On Mr. Rogers' legacy on education

One of the reasons that I think Fred Rogers is this powerfully important figure is that in the second half of the 20th century, he’s really the person who taught America about the importance of early childhood education. 

On the values he embodied

A person who cared so much about human kindness and the universal human values. That’s the other aspect that makes him so critically important today.

He is an extraordinarily powerful exemplar of the best human values that there are. He was a Presbyterian minister, but he was also all through his life a reader and a researcher of other philosophies and religions – and he saw that in all these faiths there was a universal set of values: respect, responsibility, caring, fairness, integrity. He cared about representing those.

People often ask me, what’s the soundbite for Fred’s values. I think it’s this simple: Slow down, be kind.

This excepts have been edited for length and clarity.