In a scene during the final few minutes of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Fred Rogers reflects on the end of his iconic educational program and asks whether he achieved his goal. He wonders whether anyone “got it.” That was the moment I started crying. Now, I can’t think about Mr. Rogers, his work, or what it taught me about social impact without getting choked up.
The emotional connection for me is rooted in the parallels I find in Mr. Rogers’ work and mine. His questions surfaced sadness for me because he was asking whether his mission to intentionally and radically love through his work had been received for what it was. He didn’t see himself as an entertainer. He saw himself as an educator, a mentor, a friend. Mr. Rogers’ mission was to build a humanizing bridge between very young people and the very real world, warts and all. He aimed to support children in developing the tools to engage in developmentally appropriate ways with the issues we struggle with as adults — race, class, gender, family strife, equity, justice — rather than escape into Disney fantasies. As his show and career ended, he looked around at a world that was just as physically and emotionally violent as it was when he started his career and wondered whether any of his work mattered.
My tears came forth from a well of self-doubt and loss after leaving the educational institution I co-founded and led…
