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[PLAYING PIANO] FRED ROGERS: I've been concerned about the lack of silence not only in children's lives but in all of our lives. In the speech that I will give tomorrow, I will give a minute of complete silence for people to think about those who have helped them to become who they are today. Not any one of us gets to be a competent adult without the help of many caring people.

And I think it's nourishing for all of us to take time to remember who it's been in our lives, who have helped us to become who we are, who helped us to know what's good and real, and that we have value far below the skin. The measure of our worth is not in our possessions.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You say that every day to children on your program. You are special. You are unique. You are an important person. Can children hear that too much?

FRED ROGERS: That's a very thoughtful question. This is not meant to have children become egocentric. There is a very natural, infantile narcissism without which no one can grow.

And if that isn't at least nurtured early on, then we'll have people who are looking for it for the rest of their lives. They'll be looking for somebody to take care of them. And you've probably know people in your experience who have refused to go from crawling to standing up and walking because they just didn't feel that they were worth doing anything in this life. And for these young years, I don't think children can hear or feel too much about their own worth.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You spoke just a moment ago about the importance of silence in everyone's lives. And when I think about Fred Rogers on television, I think of gentleness. I think of patience. I think of you as having all the time in the world for children. And it's something that they are lacking so much in our society today. Are you concerned about that, about the hurried nature of their lives?

FRED ROGERS: Get over childhood as quickly as possible. And go out and be a consumer. Well, of course. I mean, Lao-Tse once said, stillness is the greatest revelation. And how do you give people-- the business that you and I are in is to somehow fill these airwaves with something of value? How can we fill them with some quiet? I mean, it's anathema to a radio or television director or control room person for there not to be any sound.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Oh, in radio in particular because you can't fill it with pictures.

FRED ROGERS: Exactly.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Right.

FRED ROGERS: Somebody once said to me, you're the only person in the world who would fill up an aquarium with water and not say a word the whole time. And I said, well, you know why I would do that. Our kids who are watching are very close to the time in which they've been very concerned about control of body fluids.

And so they bring that inner drama with them when they see a hose or something filling up a container. And they're just fascinated to see whether it's going to overflow because it's not been too long since they have overflowed in their diapers. We have to, Paula. We have to understand who it is who's listening and watching. And it's only by doing that that we can produce appropriate material for people.

For instance, if you were about to adopt a child or baby, what would be the programs that you would look for in the evening when you were searching for something on television? If there was one on adoption and loads of others, which one would you choose? Well, this is the drama that you are bringing to the television screen.

My kids bring the drama of the preschool child with them. They want to know about separation and return. They want to know if something at the doctor's is going to hurt or how long it's going to hurt.

They want to know all kinds of things about their life and the challenges that they have at the moment. You don't have to be fancy. You don't have to be chasing down the street 100 miles an hour to interest somebody in something that they are dealing with inside at the moment.

PAULA SCHROEDER: I'm so glad that you brought that up because there have been many adults who have criticized children's programs. And I'm thinking particularly of Barney as being insipid or not sophisticated enough for today's audience. And I know many, many parents of young children who say, just let our kids be kids, and, let them enjoy those things, without adding an adult sensibility on top of them.

FRED ROGERS: Or a pratfall. There are so many people who I feel are now producing a fare for children who are simply superimposing their own unresolved childhood fantasies on the screen. I saw a cartoon one time. I don't know whether you know it. But there's a song that I sing in the neighborhood once in a while, especially when I go into the bathroom to show the children things in there. It's a song called "You Can Never Go Down the Drain."

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yes.

FRED ROGERS: (SINGING) You can never go down, can never go down

Can never go down the drain

(SPEAKING) And on it goes.

(SINGING) The rain may go down. But you can't go down

You're bigger than any bathroom drain

You can never go down, can never go down

Can never go down the drain

(SPEAKING) At any rate, I saw this cartoon in which a boat with a passenger was on a lake, this little boat. And a diver went down to the bottom of the lake and pulled up a plug. And the water of the lake started to go down this drain. Well, not only the water went down from the lake but the boat and the passenger and the banks of the lake. Everything was sucked down the drain. Now, I thought the person who conceived this, and especially putting it on for preschool children who are concerned about that anyway, this person, I'm sure, wasn't a bad person.

PAULA SCHROEDER: No.

FRED ROGERS: This person simply was working on his or her own unresolved childhood fantasy about going down the drain and thought, that'll be funny. Let's put that on for the kids. Well, it's not funny.

There are children who have nightmares from what they see. And anybody who comes to me to ask about getting into children's television, I invariably say, remember what you just asked me? You said children first and then television. And I usually say, get a master's in child development before you even start.

PAULA SCHROEDER: I'm sure that this is the very reason that you're getting this award from the Association of Youth Museums as a friend to children. And I was so struck by something that a colleague of mine said, when he saw you come into the building. His face lit up. This is an adult. His face lit up. And he said, you know, Mr. Rogers was the only adult I knew who gave me unconditional love when I was a child.

FRED ROGERS: That's very generous. And obviously, he was looking for that. And I'm glad that he could find it in The Neighborhood.