Kid Nation

Tonight the last episode of Kid Nation aired. The show will be missed, although this is not to suggest that children should have been or should be kept away from their families for longer periods of time, for our entertainment. But the show didn’t just invent a new reality TV gimmick. It gave a group of kids an educational experience, and in doing so also gave the rest of us a basis for hope for the future.

I admit that I started out as a Kid Nation skeptic. The initial commercial was horrifying – take a bunch of kids and leave them on their own to see how they cope. Well gosh, doesn’t that sound like a good idea?!?! But as should have been obvious, for the kids to be filmed, there would have to be grown ups there. This is not to suggest, however, that their being left to cope for themselves was an illusion. The kids were left to make their own decisions, and live with consequences of their actions, in a way that perhaps happens too rarely in real life, where the parental instinct is to shelter and supervise.

The kids on the show made their parents proud of them, and made each other proud. Thank you, CBS, for giving us hope for the future. Parents everywhere look forward to the future with great expectations knowing our kids share a world with the kids of Bonanza City.

Kid Nation