MATTHEW BURNETTE, Staff Writer

I don’t know whether I constitute as a “latchkey” kid or not. I didn’t grow up in a city and we certainly never locked our doors during the day because there was never really a need to.

My brother and I spent several of our formidable years riding the school bus to the end of our long gravel driveway where we would walk roughly a half of a mile back to our country cul-de-sac, or as it is more commonly known, “the holler.”

Our house was one of a few that was occupied by various family members in our rural nook of land on the outskirts of Woodbury. We were never far from a relative if help was ever needed, but we would spend most of the afternoon after school alone in our house.

The most prevalent occupier of our time was the television.

Though only fifteen months apart in age, my brother and I didn’t have very much in common, but the one place that we always seemed to connect was in front of the T.V.

Sure, we would have our arguments about what to watch, some even lasting so long that the shows would be over by time we finished our squabble, thus starting the process all over again.

A channel that we could always find common ground over was our local PBS station, channel 8 Nashville Public Television.

We were tried and true PBS kids.

Very little discussion occurred. We would just sit and enjoy our time together taking in programs such as Arthur (a show whose theme I believe I could still sing most of the words to), Cyberchase, Between the Lions and many more.

We were also big Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood watchers back in the day, a practice passed down to us from our mother, a PBS kid from way back.

In fact, Sesame Street has had such a long tenure on the network that there are songs that my grandmother, my mother, my brother and I and now even the youngest generation of our family all enjoy.

 There’s a lot that’s been said lately about what PBS teaches and/or exposes kids to these days.

It appears love and acceptance are now considered taboo in many circles and teaching kids about how to process their feelings and interact with people in positive ways has become controversial.

Beyond the lessons that a multitude of children learn from a station that they receive for free, to defund the Public Broadcasting Service would be robbing countless children of important connections they could be making.

Those generational bonds are of the utmost importance and shouldn’t be taken away.