I was just reading an interesting post by John Rice over on the Educational Games Research blog.  He says:

…the Sesame Street writers ventured out to craft episodes designed to teach kids “warm and fuzzy” concepts, such as the benefits of sharing, empathy, and accepting death and birth as part of the natural order of life. Increasingly, serious game makers are realizing that videogames are perhaps the best medium for instilling “fuzzy” lessons like this in students. Teamwork can easily be practiced within a MMOG [massively multi-player online game]; consequences to choices can be easily realized in a good RPG [role playing game].

Read the entire post.

What he says about games is great, but I must say that the best lesson I’ve learned from Sesame Street (not counting the Spanish vocabulary words) is that learning can be fun, and when it’s fun, I’m much more engaged as a student.  I have such fond memories of Big Bird and Oscar.  (Can’t say quite the same about all the teachers I’ve had over the years…especially in Spanish class.)   There’s also a subtle message to teachers that when you’re having fun, your students are too, and that’s something that I’ve tried to use when I’m doing instruction of any kind.

I think the key word in all this is “fun.”