Support the Kickstarter campaign for more videos that teach and encourage diversity, equality and respect.
A gay fairytale romance is the latest story amongst Pop'n'Olly's educational videos for young children. The YouTube channel, created by presenter Olly Pike, is a free resource which provides educational establishments with media involving LGBT themes.
"I feel the best way to battle discrimination for future generations is to start with children,” says Pike from his Kickstarter page. "We should educate them about a wider cross-section of society and teach acceptance with regards to love, kindness and respect.”
Pop'n'Olly's newest video Prince Henry, depicts a loving romance between a young Prince and his servant Thomas. The video focuses on the idea of class being a discriminating factor rather then sexuality, as the Princes father is happy for him to wed either boy or girl. The video goes on to teach how all humans are equal regardless of our differences.
Previous episodes look at different family setups, including those headed by same-sex couples. Pike also aims to break-down gender stereotypes, his video Super Balloon Dude, involving a pink costumed super hero, helps to “encourage children to be themselves whilst promoting diversity as a positive notion.”
Pike plans to create more free videos on diversity, particularly focusing on LGBT themes, and intends to develop further his channel with help from his recently launched Kickstarter page. He hopes to fund video production through this page, as well as publishing ‘Prince Henry' which can be claimed as a reward by pledging. Additional books, which tackle similar subjects with the theme of discrimination, are also part of Pike's long term aspirations.
"The ultimate goal, would be to have my work integrated as part of the Key Stage 1 schools syllabus, across England and Wales and then to expand this as an international protocol. I think it's vital subjects like these be taught alongside academic subjects, after all, what is an education worth, if it is lacking in basic human rights?"
Pike notably agrees with such ideas, which we have seen from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, who earlier this year stated “I am increasingly supportive of the proposition that education of any kind, if it is devoid of strong universal human rights component, can be next to worthless. We need people who are kind, people with PHD-level compassion.”
Pike claims each script goes through a thorough editing process to ensure that the tone is completely appropriate for the intended audience and that the final cut delivers a message that is informative, entertaining and non-judgemental. “It is vital we provide learning tools such as this for future generations, content which enables conversation, discussion and ultimately combats discrimination."