Learning with School House Rock!

Tue, 08/27/2013 - 4:06pm by PattySmith

If you grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons in the ‘70s or ‘80s it is quite likely you can recite the words to the Preamble to the United States Constitution by singing it. In fact, you probably learned a lot of cool things from the ABC short films Schoolhouse Rock! These animated ditties covered math, history, science and grammar in ways that made learning fun. The award winning program came straight out of the advertising world of Madison Avenue. When advertising executive David McCall discovered his son could not remember the multiplication tables, but knew all of the lyrics to the latest rock songs, his advertising mind took over and the wildly popular program was born. (Sadly, in 1999 McCall and his wife tragically lost their lives while on a mission in Albania aiding Kosovar refugees.)

The AADL has a nice collection of Schoolhouse Rock DVDs that can be used both in the home and the classroom. Many of the DVDs have bonus features that include sing-along songs, interactive pop quizzes to help reinforce key concepts and downloadable educator’s guides with web links. Wherever you choose to enjoy the series, prepare to have fun learning with the catchy tunes that taught millions of children that Knowledge is Power!