first director, but Cooney later stated, "...I couldn't begin to measure how proud I am to be Gerry Lesser's colleague and how happy I am to know the pleasure of his company". In the summer of 1968, under what Sesame Street researchers Edward Palmer and Shalom Fisch called Lesser's "able leadership", five three-day curriculum planning seminars were conducted in Boston. The purpose of the seminars, attended by educational experts and the new show's writers and producers, was to ascertain which school-preparation skills to emphasize. According to writer Michael Davis, Lesser's skills at encouraging collegiality were evident during the seminars. Writer Louise Gikow reported that the real friction occurred between the educators present. As Sesame Street songwriter Christopher Cerf reported, "...[Lesser] ran meetings better than anyone I've ever seen. He made everybody feel like they were important, that they got listened to, and that their work ended up in the final product". Davis noted that the seminars also served as a "crash course in child development, psychology, and preschool education" for the show's producers and writers. According to researcher Robert W. Morrow, Lesser understood that in order to bring research about child development into the production process of Sesame Street, a close working relationship had to be created between the researchers and the producers. Davis credited Lesser's "informal, unpretentious, and collaborative" manner with the creation of that close relationship. As head of research on Sesame Street, Lesser came up with what he called "the CTW model". This model included having assumptions about how children learn from television, the use of high-quality production values, and establishing "an organization that fostered mutual confidence among its members". Field research testing the effectiveness of each episode's content was conducted at preschools, prior to broadcast. The show's educational goals were measured after each episode aired to further evaluate the show's effectiveness. Lesser wrote Children and Television in 1974, early in the show's history, to evaluate the effectiveness of the CTW model, to explain what the show's writers, researchers, and producers were attempting to do, and to respond to criticism of Sesame Street. Lesser also explained the show's logic, its curriculum, and its pedagogy. Writer Robert W. Morrow called Lesser's book "Sesame Street's most adept defense". According to Morrow, Children and Television was the most complete explanation of the CTW's reasoning behind the show at the time, and a memoir of the show's development. Synopsis Children and