Sesame Street Live

Feb 8
Went with Jackson’s class to see Sesame Street Live today. The 8 kids in Jack’s class, along with about 30 kids from other classes, walked from the school to Madison Square Garden, which is probably ¾ of a mile away. It was a long walk, Reese cried the whole way, and many of the kids needed one-to-one chaperoning. The show was very fun at first – Ernie and Bert start it off and the kids go wild when they peek out from behind the curtain. Then Oscar, Big Bird, and a couple of others whose names I don’t know come out for the opening number. Then Elmo comes out and all the kids stand up and point and cheer. It was like the Beatles for 3 year olds and I couldn’t help thinking its probably a rush for whoever was in the Elmo suit, much like being a rock star.
They had sat us near the back, with a couple of rows of empty seats around. I’m not sure if that was by design or not. I looked down our row and one kid had his palms over his ears and was standing up and spinning every once in a while, one had his fingers in his ears, and one was asleep. The two girls were not really reacting, as usual. Jackson was no superstar, he would not stay in his seat and was fascinated by the light that was over our head, it was a big light that was not on. He kept coming back to it and staring at it, saying “big light” and pushing my head toward it. I hadn’t seen that kind of stimmy behavior in many months, so I did not have much patience for it. But at least (in comparison to his classmates) he knew what was going on, got excited at the right parts, and clapped his hands a little to the music and for applause.
It was revealing to see the other kids out in the real world – I had never seen any of them outside of the classroom. At school, it has always been obvious that they are lower functioning than Jack (except one of them who is in the same neighborhood), and at the show that was even more apparent. At the show, it was sad in a way – all the “normal” kids up front were going wild and having a blast, but although our kids seemed to recognize the characters, I think, it moved way too fast and was too hard to hear for most of them to follow or figure out what was going on. Most of those kids really don’t stand a chance, I don’t think, of ever getting out of the special needs world and making it on their own.
After about 40 minutes, big bird came out an announced a 15 minute intermission. I thought he was joking and the show was going to start right back up – sort of a tease for the kids. Turns out he was serious and all the poor parents had to control their kids who were bouncing off the walls while vendors marched up and down with balloons, cotton candy, twirly lights, and candy popcorn for $10 per. Really rude of them, if you ask me. I took the opportunity to leave early, as I wasn’t too keen on the idea of spending the 45 minutes taking the kids back to school.