Lloyd Morrisett
Encyclopedia
Lloyd Newton Morrisett, Jr. (born November 2, 1929, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is an American experimental psychologist with a career in education, communications, and philanthropy. He is one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop
), the organization famous for the creation of the children's television shows Sesame Street
, The Electric Company, and many others.
He is married to Mary Pierre Morrisett. They have two children — Sarah Elizabeth Otley and Julie Margaret Morrisett.
, the co-founder of Children's Television Workshop.
Morrisett assumed he was headed for a life of academia like his father, a professor at UCLA. “I was brought up to believe that being a professor was the best job in the world,” he said. Today, he credits his father with inspiring his lifelong interest in education.
and received his BA in philosophy in 1951. Originally, he had wanted to become a chemist, but after taking a fascinating course in his junior year, he realized he wanted to study experimental psychology. He became an Oberlin College trustee and was Chairman of the Board from 1975 to 1981.
He did graduate work in psychology for two years at UCLA, where he met an assistant professor named Irving Maltzman — whom he describes as “very important, very influential in psychology.” Morrisett became Maltzman’s research assistant, and together, they co-authored six papers and studies.
Inspired by Maltzman, whose area was human learning, creativity and human thinking, Morrisett attended Yale
in 1953 for three years and earned a Ph.D in experimental psychology. There, he met and apprenticed with Carl I. Hovland, a leading psychologist who founded the Yale Communications and Attitude Change program. In later years, Morrisett would credit that apprenticeship with sparking his interest in communications.
At Yale, Morrisett wrote a dissertation: “The Role of Implicit Practice in Learning.” The thesis, which used three activities — including long distance dart throwing — as examples, explored whether or not it is possible to improve performance by thinking about it. Morrisett concluded that in the instance of dart throwing, it is not possible. But in the instance of a two-handed coordination task, it is possible. Today, the dissertation is cited as an important early contribution to sports psychology.
In 1956, Morrisett landed a teaching job in the School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley. But he was having doubts about academic life. It lacked mystery and excitement, he thought, and he was “unimpressed by the seriousness of his students.”
He joined the Social Science Research Council
in New York as a staff member from 1958-59. While there, he met Herbert Simon
and Allen Newell
. Simon and Newell, both faculty members at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
(now Carnegie-Mellon), are “credited with laying much of the groundwork for the emerging field of cognitive psychology, which became Morrisett’s lifelong scholarly passion.” They based their theoretical models on computer simulations of the thought process. These early computer simulations led to Morrisett’s permanent fascination with computer technology.
. Morrisett joined Carnegie as an executive assistant to Gardner in 1959, later becoming Vice President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He stayed with the Corporation for ten years.
One of the main contributions of Carnegie during those years was the creation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP). NAEP is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Morrisett was the main Carnegie officer working with the committee that initiated NAEP. He worked closely with Ralph Tyler and John Tukey
who were essential in developing it.
While at the Corporation, Morrisett developed a specialty in early education and also became engaged in projects concerning human creativity. He became increasingly aware of the educational disadvantages of poor and minority children and wanted to find a way to better their access to preschool learning. Under his direction, the foundation supported six experiments to test children's responses to teaching methods.
But, says Morrisett, "There was a big discrepancy between what we were doing and what we were trying to accomplish [in reducing the education gap]." Morrisett was frustrated because while the experiments were effective, they reached only a few hundred disadvantaged students. He wanted to reach millions.
Coincidentally, his old friend Julian Ganz had suggested that he get in touch with his cousin, Joan Ganz (now Joan Ganz Cooney) who was, at the time, a producer at New York City’s public TV station, WNDT
Channel 13. The two became friends.
“Sarah Morrisett had memorized an entire repertoire of TV jingles,” Michael Davis writes in his book “Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street.” “It is not too far a stretch to say that Sarah’s mastery of jingles led to a central hypothesis of the great experiment that we know as Sesame Street: if television could successfully teach the words and music to advertisements, couldn’t it teach children more substantive material by co-opting the very elements that made ads so effective?”
In February 1966, at a dinner party at Cooney’s Gramercy park apartment, she and Morrisett talked about his work with early education. Morrisett says he asked Cooney, “Do you think television can be used to teach young children?” And she said, “I don’t know, but I’d like to talk about it.” Television seemed like an ideal platform to use in the Carnegie foundation’s goal of reaching children.
Using her own knowledge of people in television and Morrisett’s knowledge of people in education and psychology, Cooney spent three months interviewing and preparing a report, “The Potential Uses of Television in Pre-School Education.” It suggested that advertising techniques could teach letters and numbers, and provided the essential formula for a new pre-school, entertaining and educational television program appealing to both kids and parents. Morrisett and Cooney approached Harold (Doc) Howe, U.S. Commissioner of Education
, who put up $4 million — nearly half the start-up money for Children’s Television Workshop. Within Carnegie, Morrisett secured another $1 million. The Ford Foundation and other sources donated $3 million.
“Had Morrisett been any less effective in lining up financial support,” Lee D. Mitgang writes in his book “Big Bird & Beyond,” “Cooney’s report likely would have become just another long-forgotten foundation idea.”
’s famous Muppets — debuted. Morrisett and Cooney watched the debut at the Essex House overlooking New York City’s Central Park West. During the broadcast, he turned to her and said, “Joan, we did it.”
“Lloyd underplays his role in the development of Sesame Street,” said John Gardner, former president Carnegie Corporation of NY. “He’s modest, but people who saw the beginnings of Sesame Street agree that he played a very significant contributing role as a member of that very small group.”
Today, Sesame Street is aired in over 140 countries. As of 2008, the series has received 118 Emmy Awards — more than any other television series. An estimated 77 million Americans watched the series as children. In addition to Sesame Street, at least seventeen indigenous, locally produced versions of the show are seen in countries around the world. Sesame Workshop’s other hugely successful shows have included The Electric Company and Pinky Dinky Doo
.
In nearly three decades as president, Mitgang writes, “Markle provided more than 1,011 grants. Its expenditure of more than $80 million yielded some 1,500 products that included books, periodical articles, audio and video products, TV and radio productions, CDs, and Internet Web sites.” Many of its grants supported policy analysis and research in the communications field.
In his final presidential essay, “Philanthropy and Venture Capital,” published in the 1997 annual report, Morrisett wrote: “In September of 1969, when I became president of the Markle Foundation, I began to hear questions from friends and acquaintances such as, ‘Okay, so you are a foundation president. What do you do, give away money?’ Since I did not really believe that ‘giving away money’ was what we were about, I struggled with my annoyance at the question and even more at not having a ready answer…
“The years since 1969,” he wrote, “have been a voyage of discovery to see if the metaphor, ‘venture capital for social benefit’ really is the best description of what the Markle Foundation has been trying to do.”
Morrisett was also a board member of RAND
(a research institute dealing with domestic public policy and national security issues) for thirty years and Chairman of the Board for nine years, 1986-1995. He continues as an Advisory Trustee.
Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
), the organization famous for the creation of the children's television shows Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
, The Electric Company, and many others.
He is married to Mary Pierre Morrisett. They have two children — Sarah Elizabeth Otley and Julie Margaret Morrisett.
Biography
He is the son of Jessie Watson and Lloyd Newton Morrisett, Sr. The family lived in Oklahoma City in the 1920s before moving to New York City in 1933 to escape the hardships brought about by the Dust Bowl and the Depression. After the Great Depression, the family moved to California, where Morrisett met Julian Ganz, a middle school classmate who would later introduce him to Joan Ganz CooneyJoan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney is an American television producer. She is one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop , the organization famous for the creation of the children's television show Sesame Street. Cooney received her B.A...
, the co-founder of Children's Television Workshop.
Morrisett assumed he was headed for a life of academia like his father, a professor at UCLA. “I was brought up to believe that being a professor was the best job in the world,” he said. Today, he credits his father with inspiring his lifelong interest in education.
Education/Early Career
Morrisett attended Oberlin CollegeOberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
and received his BA in philosophy in 1951. Originally, he had wanted to become a chemist, but after taking a fascinating course in his junior year, he realized he wanted to study experimental psychology. He became an Oberlin College trustee and was Chairman of the Board from 1975 to 1981.
He did graduate work in psychology for two years at UCLA, where he met an assistant professor named Irving Maltzman — whom he describes as “very important, very influential in psychology.” Morrisett became Maltzman’s research assistant, and together, they co-authored six papers and studies.
Inspired by Maltzman, whose area was human learning, creativity and human thinking, Morrisett attended Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
in 1953 for three years and earned a Ph.D in experimental psychology. There, he met and apprenticed with Carl I. Hovland, a leading psychologist who founded the Yale Communications and Attitude Change program. In later years, Morrisett would credit that apprenticeship with sparking his interest in communications.
At Yale, Morrisett wrote a dissertation: “The Role of Implicit Practice in Learning.” The thesis, which used three activities — including long distance dart throwing — as examples, explored whether or not it is possible to improve performance by thinking about it. Morrisett concluded that in the instance of dart throwing, it is not possible. But in the instance of a two-handed coordination task, it is possible. Today, the dissertation is cited as an important early contribution to sports psychology.
In 1956, Morrisett landed a teaching job in the School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley. But he was having doubts about academic life. It lacked mystery and excitement, he thought, and he was “unimpressed by the seriousness of his students.”
He joined the Social Science Research Council
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
in New York as a staff member from 1958-59. While there, he met Herbert Simon
Herbert Simon
Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...
and Allen Newell
Allen Newell
Allen Newell was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department of Psychology...
. Simon and Newell, both faculty members at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
(now Carnegie-Mellon), are “credited with laying much of the groundwork for the emerging field of cognitive psychology, which became Morrisett’s lifelong scholarly passion.” They based their theoretical models on computer simulations of the thought process. These early computer simulations led to Morrisett’s permanent fascination with computer technology.
The Carnegie Years
Morrisett first encountered the Carnegie Corporation, a philanthropic foundation focused on education, while he was at the Social Science Research CouncilSocial Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
. Morrisett joined Carnegie as an executive assistant to Gardner in 1959, later becoming Vice President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He stayed with the Corporation for ten years.
One of the main contributions of Carnegie during those years was the creation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress
National Assessment of Educational Progress
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation’s students know and can do in core subjects. NAEP is a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Education Statistics , within the ...
(NAEP). NAEP is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Morrisett was the main Carnegie officer working with the committee that initiated NAEP. He worked closely with Ralph Tyler and John Tukey
John Tukey
John Wilder Tukey ForMemRS was an American statistician.- Biography :Tukey was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1915, and obtained a B.A. in 1936 and M.Sc. in 1937, in chemistry, from Brown University, before moving to Princeton University where he received a Ph.D...
who were essential in developing it.
While at the Corporation, Morrisett developed a specialty in early education and also became engaged in projects concerning human creativity. He became increasingly aware of the educational disadvantages of poor and minority children and wanted to find a way to better their access to preschool learning. Under his direction, the foundation supported six experiments to test children's responses to teaching methods.
But, says Morrisett, "There was a big discrepancy between what we were doing and what we were trying to accomplish [in reducing the education gap]." Morrisett was frustrated because while the experiments were effective, they reached only a few hundred disadvantaged students. He wanted to reach millions.
Coincidentally, his old friend Julian Ganz had suggested that he get in touch with his cousin, Joan Ganz (now Joan Ganz Cooney) who was, at the time, a producer at New York City’s public TV station, WNDT
WNET
WNET, channel 13 is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the New York metropolitan area, WNET is a primary station of the Public Broadcasting Service and a primary provider of PBS programming...
Channel 13. The two became friends.
Children’s Television Workshop
In December 1965, as Morrisett’s then 3-year-old daughter Sarah watched the test patterns as she waited for her cartoons to start one Sunday morning, her father noticed something. “It struck me there was something fascinating to Sarah about television,” he said.“Sarah Morrisett had memorized an entire repertoire of TV jingles,” Michael Davis writes in his book “Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street.” “It is not too far a stretch to say that Sarah’s mastery of jingles led to a central hypothesis of the great experiment that we know as Sesame Street: if television could successfully teach the words and music to advertisements, couldn’t it teach children more substantive material by co-opting the very elements that made ads so effective?”
In February 1966, at a dinner party at Cooney’s Gramercy park apartment, she and Morrisett talked about his work with early education. Morrisett says he asked Cooney, “Do you think television can be used to teach young children?” And she said, “I don’t know, but I’d like to talk about it.” Television seemed like an ideal platform to use in the Carnegie foundation’s goal of reaching children.
Using her own knowledge of people in television and Morrisett’s knowledge of people in education and psychology, Cooney spent three months interviewing and preparing a report, “The Potential Uses of Television in Pre-School Education.” It suggested that advertising techniques could teach letters and numbers, and provided the essential formula for a new pre-school, entertaining and educational television program appealing to both kids and parents. Morrisett and Cooney approached Harold (Doc) Howe, U.S. Commissioner of Education
Commissioner of Education
The Commissioner of Education was the title given to the head of the National Bureau of Education, a former unit within the Department of the Interior in the United States...
, who put up $4 million — nearly half the start-up money for Children’s Television Workshop. Within Carnegie, Morrisett secured another $1 million. The Ford Foundation and other sources donated $3 million.
“Had Morrisett been any less effective in lining up financial support,” Lee D. Mitgang writes in his book “Big Bird & Beyond,” “Cooney’s report likely would have become just another long-forgotten foundation idea.”
Sesame Street
On Nov 10, 1969, Sesame Street — starring Jim HensonJim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
’s famous Muppets — debuted. Morrisett and Cooney watched the debut at the Essex House overlooking New York City’s Central Park West. During the broadcast, he turned to her and said, “Joan, we did it.”
“Lloyd underplays his role in the development of Sesame Street,” said John Gardner, former president Carnegie Corporation of NY. “He’s modest, but people who saw the beginnings of Sesame Street agree that he played a very significant contributing role as a member of that very small group.”
Today, Sesame Street is aired in over 140 countries. As of 2008, the series has received 118 Emmy Awards — more than any other television series. An estimated 77 million Americans watched the series as children. In addition to Sesame Street, at least seventeen indigenous, locally produced versions of the show are seen in countries around the world. Sesame Workshop’s other hugely successful shows have included The Electric Company and Pinky Dinky Doo
Pinky Dinky Doo
Pinky Dinky Doo is a children's animated series that currently airs dubbed in Spanish and English on Univision in the USA, ABC in Australia, CBeebies in Great Britain, and Treehouse in Canada, in the Kids' CBC programming block...
.
The Markle Foundation Years
The year Sesame Street hit the airwaves, with Morrisett as chairman of the board of CTW, he joined the John and Mary Markle Foundation as president. He initiated the Foundation's program in communications and information technology, replacing the Foundation’s previous focus on medicine. In his first year, based on his own path-breaking role as one of the founders of CTW, the foundation supported CTW in developing sound research methods to “undergird its bold and nationally-important new programming initiatives.”In nearly three decades as president, Mitgang writes, “Markle provided more than 1,011 grants. Its expenditure of more than $80 million yielded some 1,500 products that included books, periodical articles, audio and video products, TV and radio productions, CDs, and Internet Web sites.” Many of its grants supported policy analysis and research in the communications field.
In his final presidential essay, “Philanthropy and Venture Capital,” published in the 1997 annual report, Morrisett wrote: “In September of 1969, when I became president of the Markle Foundation, I began to hear questions from friends and acquaintances such as, ‘Okay, so you are a foundation president. What do you do, give away money?’ Since I did not really believe that ‘giving away money’ was what we were about, I struggled with my annoyance at the question and even more at not having a ready answer…
“The nagging question, ‘so what do you do….,’ led to many frustrating conversations and blank looks until I hit upon a useful metaphor that silenced most questions. I said that we were most like a venture capital company, but that instead of financial profit, we measured ourselves by “social benefit.”
-Markle Annual Report, 1997
“The years since 1969,” he wrote, “have been a voyage of discovery to see if the metaphor, ‘venture capital for social benefit’ really is the best description of what the Markle Foundation has been trying to do.”
Nixon's Enemies List
In 1971, Nixon wrote his infamous enemies list — and Lloyd N. Morrisett was number 200, though it could have been Morrisett, Sr., who was singled out as one of Nixon’s political opponents. Neither of the Morrisetts played an active role in politics.Current activities
- Sesame Workshop (Formerly Children’s Television Workshop): Member, Board of Trustees 1970-; Chairman, 1970–2000
- Public Agenda Foundation: Member, Board of Directors 1998-
- Tucows, Inc.: Member, Board of Directors 1994-
Morrisett was also a board member of RAND
RAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
(a research institute dealing with domestic public policy and national security issues) for thirty years and Chairman of the Board for nine years, 1986-1995. He continues as an Advisory Trustee.
Honors and awards
| Award | Organization | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor of Humane Letters | Oberlin College | 1971 |
| Golden Plate Award | American Academy of Achievement | 1971 |
| Doctor of Laws | Northwestern University | 1975 |
| Hall of Fame Award | ACT Children's Television | 1988 |
| Doctor of Public Policy | Rand Graduate School | 1995 |