Making Television Educational

If it wasn't for a HGSE internship nearly 15 years ago, WGBH Children's Programming Producer Jacqui Deegan might not be working on popular children's shows like Arthur and Time Warp Trio.

As a producer of Arthur, the Emmy-award winning animated series that airs daily on PBS Kids, and Time Warp Trio, a history cartoon aired weekly on NBC, education is always on the top of Deegan's mind.

However, Deegan never foresaw education in her future. As a Russian major at Barnard College, she thought she might go into the Foreign Service. However, shortly after graduating, she started teaching a summer course in Russian to high school students in Connecticut and was soon hooked on the education field.

Deegan's experience at HGSE proved to be wonderful. "It was amazing and one of the most racially and age-diverse study environments I'd been in," she says, recalling her classes as forums for serious education.

"People took the time out [at HGSE]," she said. "You could see the dedication and passion for education and children."

In the early 1990s, Deegan was looking through HGSE's internship listings when she stumbled across a WGBH position working in the education and outreach department. She got the spring internship and "fell in love with WGBH," she says.

By that point, she realized that she wanted to work in television production, specifically at WGBH, due to their strong ties to education research. But a return to WGBH would have to wait.

Upon earning her Ed.M. in administration, planning and social policy in 1993, Deegan spent several years freelancing as a production assistant for the news, movies, and commercials. All the while, Deegan was waiting for an opportunity to return to public television.

She eventually worked her way back to WGBH by taking a job as a production assistant in educational programming, helping produce materials specifically for teachers as part of the "Investigating Classrooms: Science" series. Less than two years later, she made the switch to children's programming and started working on Arthur.

Deegan's job as a producer includes reviewing early design, story boards, scripts, music, sound effects, and the educational material with a team of advisors. In addition to producing the show, Deegan has written two episodes: "Kiss and Tell" and "Citizen Frenksy".

Deegan is also one of the producers for Time Warp Trio, a cartoon in which three children travel back in time to learn about history. The show has been studied at HGSE, where Lecturer Ilona Holland's Formative Evaluation course examines the program.

"Kids are going to watch, so you want them to be learning. Television can be a great way to reach them," Deegan says. "Children can use [television] as a learning tool in their lives."

Both shows are book-based and include various learning materials that correspond with each lesson and episode.

Deegan credits her own education as helping her daily in the field. "For me, [my education] is a constant lens in which I use to watch things," Deegan says. "I'll always wear that hat as an educator."