By now, you will have all seen Commander Chris Hadfield’s version of Bowie’s Space Oddity, recorded and filmed on the International Space Station. It is truly amazing. More than two hundred miles above the Earth, a man floated in a tin can, played his guitar and sent a song down here to those of us still on the planet.

My mind is still blown, not just by the amazing imagery, but the whole idea of this happening and what it means.

Go on, watch it again…

This world is changing so much. Things we take as normal could be gone in a couple of generations and things we can’t even imagine could be part of everyday life. Don’t believe me? Okay, yes, I too am disappointed we don’t yet have flying cars and robot butlers. But just consider the effect of 3D printers. Right now, for several grand, you can get a device that prints objects. Actual objects. Sure, they’re expensive and are limited in what they can do but what about in ten years? What if they’re in all our homes and capable of making much more than a pretty plastic model? Already the implications are becoming apparent with plans for 3D-printed guns hitting the Internet. More positively, we can print our own tools. Our own toys. Our own parts for almost anything.

What will that mean for industry? What value will manufacturing have? And if manufacturing has no value and plans are shared freely, what value has creation? Innovation? How will our economic models that served us well during industrial times stand up to change of that magnitude?

I don’t have all the answers. I am just using that one single device to illustrate the potential for society-altering change. Those of my age, of course, have seen such huge changes already. We are the generation who knows what it is like to live before the Internet and after it. I watch Mad Men and notice the lack of computers on the desks and I have to remind myself how we possibly got any work done without computers.

It is all changing.

So in a world where all is changing, what do we teach our children? What do I teach my girls? How about these – creativity, adaptability, problem solving. All good. Empathy, the will to do good. Great, I can see already we’re going to need each other as our planet changes. A love of learning, a search for knowledge, understanding, focus. Absolutely. Change can be influenced, steered, and a greater understanding of our world, our universe and just who we are can help us direct that change towards the positive, helping to make our lives better. Inspiration and aspiration, the belief that we can do amazing things and are capable of things thought previously impossible regardless of gender, race or social standing. Yes, yes, yes.

Commander Hadfield played a guitar in space and I think he has awed a whole generation. He entertained us. But he has done so much more – he has inspired us. The International Space Station is just the beginning of an amazing journey.

We can all play our part. I won’t get to space any time soon but I can inspire children to learn, to enjoy the wonders of our planetary neighbours. That’s why I created Planet Cosmo. It is entertainment first and foremost. Kids have to love the show, they have to laugh and smile and have to want to watch it. And they do. I have lovely mails from parents on how much their children enjoy it but those mails tell me the effect goes beyond the entertainment. My little show inspires – a love of learning, a new interest in space. I’m no Chris Hadfield but the reaction to the show tells me that our team at Geronimo Productions performed our space mission well. Our hard work paid off. And I have been so fortunate to work with such a dedicated team.

As I prepare to leave Geronimo at the end of this month, something that will be one of the biggest changes in my own life, I reflect back on what we have achieved and I can smile. But I’m also looking to the future, at what awesome gifts we can give the next generation to entertain them and inspire them, to enrich their lives both as children and adults.

It’s an adventure. Almost like packing my guitar and blasting off into space.

Well, not quite. But exciting nonetheless.

Thank you Commander Hadfield for entertaining us and inspiring us. And reminding me of two of the most important goals when creating content for children.

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Tags: animation, astronomy, Children, Geronimo Productions, hopes, Planet Cosmo, role models, writing

This morning, the Curiosity Rover touched down on on planet Mars. A new man-made vehicle joining others all the way out there on another planet, one that looks like just a red star out there in the night sky.

It’s on a whole other planet right now as you’re reading this. I find that amazing.

For me, it is an important step on the journey to our future. I take it as a given that humans will one day live on other planets. We know that Earth won’t always be here – that’s just the way it is. At some point far into the future, humanity will simply have no choice but to be somewhere else and, given the rate we’re progressing, I have no doubt we are going to be well ahead of the universe and we’ll be nicely settled in other corners of the galaxy by that stage. So each journey like this is, in a way, preparation for some of the far greater journeys that will happen in the long story of humanity.

A story which is really only getting started.

Back to right now and our Solar System is absolutely fascinating and its exploration is an adventure. And I have found that this does not go unnoticed by any young child exposed to even the most basic ideas about the planets.

My Daisy’s interest began at around two and a half years old and it started with the Moon. What is it? What does it do? Can we go there? The more I told her, the more questions she had. On her third birthday, she blew out her birthday candles and made a wish – that she would one day go into space with Daddy.

Then some time later, Daisy realised something that changed everything for her.

Everything.

She looked up at me, very serious, and said, “Daddy? If we’re on planet Earth and planets are in space, does that mean… we’re in space?” The answer blew her mind. And made the world a far more wonderful and more exciting place to be. In a way, her birthday wish had come true. In that instant, she changed from being a normal little girl to a space explorer. And the best part? All this space stuff is real. That makes all the difference to a child.

And for me it was then that, in the back of my mind, a show was born. A show that might spark an interest in space for a new generation, nurture that interest and turn young children into space explorers. As Curiosity reached Mars and now explores its surface, we are putting the finishing touches to an episode of Cosmo set on that very planet.

I can only hope that when it airs it will entertain, amuse, inform and inspire.

I’ll leave you with this simple thought on the importance of space from my now five-year-old Daisy taken from her Saturn artist lesson video below:

“If space wasn’t real, there wouldn’t be Earth and there wouldn’t be stars to see, planets like these and Earth, because Earth is in space.”

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Tags: animation, astronomy, Children, Cosmo, Curiosity Rover, hopes, space

In one of my articles from last year on Dad.ie, I mentioned one of the problems even the most responsible parent has with TV shows that may not be age-appropriate (or even appropriate in any way ever) – we can pick and choose what our children watch but we can’t really shield them from what other children are watching.

Since writing that article, my once-little Daisy has moved up to ‘big school’ and when that happened there was a pretty big explosion in violent expression. Not actions for the most part, but definitely words. Now kids are kids and they aren’t always nice to other kids. But you know the way big content producers make sure children know the brand and the elements unique to their product? Well, the side effect of that is that it often makes violent influences pretty easy to track.

Like the lightsaber example in my article, this isn’t just kids exploring violence as part of being kids. There are often sources, influences, inspirations. A huge amount of action shows for kids older than my girls, for example, don’t just show violence as an acceptable solution, they make it the solution of heroes. The way of champions.

It’s what the good guys do.

But I guess I do need to face one thing: TV didn’t invent violence. It’s obvious, I know, but important to point out. Just because studies show a relationship between viewing violent television and aggression (and they do), that doesn’t mean television can be a scapegoat for all the evils of the world. Same with music, or videogames or Ozzy or Lionel Ritchie or anything else.

The Vikings didn’t watch Power Rangers.

The Spanish Inquisition didn’t listen to Judas Priest.

The Huns didn’t play Grand Theft Auto.

They discovered violence all by themselves.

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But that doesn’t mean we can’t aim for better, right?

That our biggest threat is still ourselves, that people inflict pain and death on other people around the world all the time bugs the hell out of me. It is not something we should just take for granted. Not something we should accept. Look at the amazing things we can do and how far we have come already. We’re pretty fantastic in so many ways, and can do so much better.

Unfortunately, as the Vikings, Spanish Inquisition and Huns have shown us, removing television violence isn’t going to solve the world’s ills. I wish it were that simple. But we do know people learn from the television they watch as children. So, as an idea, how about this – let’s not make it worse. Positive messages, showing alternatives to violence, reinforcing how amazing we all are and that, as it happens, not everyone is out to get you, may go some way (even a very tiny way) to eventually leading to a time when we’re all just good to each other.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

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Tags: animation, Children, education, hopes, media literacy, Messages, parenting, role models, violence

In the US as far back as 1979, the FTC was calling for a ban on all advertising during blocks targeted at children younger than twelve years of age. Junk food advertising was a particular concern.

Just a few years ago, in the UK, there was move to ban junk food ads targeting children. And for a while now, TV chef personality Jamie Oliver has had a strong campaign to get children eating better food in schools. I gather that hasn’t gone down all that well in the US (and have read speculation that it’s simply down to the idea that the truth hurts). Nevertheless, whether people want to hear it or not, concerns about junk food and children’s health come up time and time again.

But the thing is, children love junk food.

They really love it.

So… shouldn’t we just let them have it?

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I’m guessing most will answer no. Unless you own a McDonalds franchise, in which case you’re probably shouting a big McYes! But some of us, especially parents, don’t want children just to indulge themselves.

Because it’s not good for them, is it?

Just because they like it doesn’t mean they should have it.

As a parent, I feel it’s the same for children’s television. The television model has traditionally existed to feed children what they want. Ratings are everything and, understandably, few broadcasters want to put up the TV equivalent of broccoli up there on screen.

And yet indulging the desire for junk food television can in no way be a good thing. As it happens, there are quite a few good shows out there, especially in preschool. And there are many more really entertaining shows that, personally, I’d call ‘neutral’. But it would be great if we could all strive to make the healthy alternatives a little less alternative and work towards making them the norm.

Just like Jamie Oliver.

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Tags: Children, education, hopes, parenting

Cartoon enthusiasts (adults, I should point out) often lament the disappearance of certain cartoons or modern censorship of cartoons. Old movies not being rereleased, wartime shorts being swept under the carpet, Noddy characters being ‘retired’ and many old stories being sliced, chopped and sweetened. Times change and it can be quite sad if parts of your childhood get left behind when that happens.

This is one of my favourite Roobarb images from the Calveley/Godfrey original -

So much character. A lovely drawing, so spontaneous. And one that I kept close to me when I was directing the second series. We couldn’t put a cigar in his mouth these days, of course. And that’s fairly minor compared to some of the changes in children’s entertainment. You don’t have to go too far back to find the level of violence, racism and just about everything else is completely on another scale.

Going even further, pre-television, to the real children’s classics, where wolves ate grandparents and, well, everyone ate everyone else, it’s easy to see the difference. Back when most of those stories were written, the life of a child was uncertain. Survival rates were low. Many children didn’t make it to adulthood. Those who did lost family and friends along the way. As my mother once pointed out to me, stories often had to do more to prepare a child for death than prepare them for life.

Luckily, most children in the Western world now have a far better survival rate. Dealing with death beyond the loss of a hamster is not something most have to face on any kind of regular basis. Many of us frown upon the violence of our ancestors, the racism, the intolerance.

We did a lot of things in the past we simply don’t do now.

And, hopefully, we’ll do things even better in the future. We move forward. In doing that, we have to leave that behind which is no longer relevant. We have to let it go to make a better world. A more fun world, a more tolerant world, a more expressive world. A world filled with laughter, confidence and exploration.

Times change.

That’s a great thing.

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Tags: Children, hopes, Roobarb