Multiple Fun on Square One

By Richard Zoglin

Television programs for children seem to divide neatly into two mutually exclusive categories: the shows kids watch and the shows they ought to watch. In the first group are the platoons of super-heroes, Smurfs and toy-store transplants that fill the dial on Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons. In the second are those earnest after-school specials and occasional PBS offerings praised by critics and parents but seldom watched by more than a fraction of the youngsters who crowd in front of the set for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Square One TV, the new PBS mathematics series produced by the Children's Television Workshop, is not likely to beat out He- Man either. But it demonstrates at least one valuable lesson: children's TV can be both good and good for you.

Given the recent reports that U.S. students are less skilled in math than their counterparts in other countries, Square One is a welcome addition. Aimed at eight-to-twelve-year-olds, it seeks to explain such basic concepts as percentages and probability and show how math can be used to solve everyday problems. The lessons are deftly couched in a fast-paced series of sketches that mimic what children know best: other TV shows.

Indeed, anyone wondering where the media-savvy satire of vintage Saturday Night Live has gone will be surprised to find that it has resurfaced on a children's show. In a sly takeoff of The Paper Chase, two of the show's regular cast members impersonate Professor Kingsfield and Martin Short's nerdy Ed Grimley character (they figure out whether $250 will be enough to buy all the lawbooks needed). The Samurai Mathematician (with bows to John Belushi) hacks boards into halves, thirds and fourths for a lesson in fractions. Humphrey Bogus and Bergrid Ingman star in an "edited for television" movie, Cartablanca; at the end of this version, "Nick" decides to leave on the plane, but calculations show that his 223-lb. frame will put the cargo over the weight limit. There are MTV-style music videos, a game show called But Who's Counting?, and a funny continuing feature entitled Mathnet, in which a pair of mathematician-sleuths do a dead-on, deadpan parody of the old Jack Webb Dragnet series.

The mathematics is sometimes so well hidden as to be nearly invisible. But at its best Square One finds clever and disarming ways of bringing dry subjects to life. In a sketch to illustrate the properties of the number zero, for example, the despondent numeral visits a psychoanalyst. "I'm just a nothing," he sobs. Zero added to any other number, he explains, adds nothing; when placed to the right of a decimal point, it even makes a number smaller. The supportive shrink reminds his patient of zero's important role: "What about multiplication? Zero times any number is zero. Think of the power you wield over all the other numbers!"

Square One TV (whose $16 million budget for its first 75 shows was supplied by grants from IBM and the National Science Foundation, among other donors) comes at a critical time for the Children's Television Workshop. The nonprofit corporation, which virtually reinvented children's TV with its preschool series Sesame Street, has not produced a new show in seven years and has had its share of financial troubles, including failed forays into computer software and amusement parks. The company has been criticized for licensing its name too freely to toys and other items (soon to be test-marketed: Sesame Street vitamins) and for its sometimes hard-sell approach to fund raising. CTW's science series 3-2-1 Contact has struggled for survival, and The Electric Company has left the air after eight years of reruns. Only Sesame Street, now in its 18th season, continues strong and healthy.

Square One has not been universally applauded. A few critics have complained that the show skimps on education in favor of slick entertainment. The show's producers reply that Square One is not intended to teach specific math skills, and must be presented in a beguiling way to lure young viewers away from competing fare. "We understand that we're not going to teach a child how to do an algebra problem," says CTW President Joan Ganz Cooney. "We're trying to change the attitude toward problem solving and to show how very useful it is to know mathematics in your daily life."

Despite the dissenters, many educators are pleased with the show's approach. "I am impressed," says John Dossey, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. "I think it does a nice job of trying to promote a couple of themes that need to be improved in our teaching of mathematics: problem solving and estimation." The show's sprightly treatment of an often dreary topic is nourishing enough for Chester Finn Jr., an Assistant Secretary of Education. "Math is spinach and television is candy," he says. "What we have in Square One is a peanut-butter-and-lettuce sandwich." Adults should like the diet too; now they can stop complaining about He-Man and his friends and join their children in front of the set.

With reporting by William Tynan/New York