Schoolhouse Rock! : Teaching More Than One Generation

They continued to have these mini videos available for more than just one generation. That's right, it has been over thirty years and I will still catch them on TV. These have not just been part of our video collection, I am finding them on the internet as well. Its amazing how one little thing can carry over and continue to help. I am not sure if they had intended these to be a one or two season thing. But they are still available and still helping our children learn.

As I once again watch the Schoolhouse Rock videos I am amazed how I remember each one of the songs. How the voices come flooding back into my memories. How I want to share them with my kids. And how I have shared them with others. A little quote here and a little quote there. Even how I have worked them into my other lenses.

But please continue to read on. I am hoping that for the older generations that this brings back good memories. And for the younger generation it will impart some memories that you will wish to pass on to the generations yet to come. So please continue and enjoy a bit of history that continues to pay forward.

Main Image

My favorite voce from Schoolhouse Rock

Until now I didn't know who did the voices on Schoolhouse Rock. You would think that with all the things I have learned over the years that I would have been a bit more curious about their voices. Such as who would be willing to spend their time to make these kid vids? And who are they, but I did not think of them until now, or was I not with it enough to do so? Yes I just used the Conjunction Junction to finish that sentence.

But when I Googled him I found out a bit more. OK a lot more. Like he plays the trumpet and is an accomplished jazz singer. Growing up I thought he was a signer that was just in for the Schoolhouse Rock and nothing else. Boy was I wrong.

Use this link to find out about the other voices of Schoolhouse Rock

For me multiplication was the hardest thing to get straight in school. That is until I was talking to one of our neighbors and she pulled out a piece of graph paper. She the wrote out the numbers 0 - 9 across the top and 0 - 9 on the left. What she then did was fill in all the numbers as I used my fingers to figure out some of the answers. OK most of the answers. Because of the Schoolhouse rock some of the answers I know right off. The fives were the first lines that I filled in. Even before the zeros. Its amazing how people are there to help you even when you don't know it.

And as a side note my youngest is starting to lean multiplication. How convenient.

1. My Hero Zero - nothing from nothing leaves nothing - Billy Preston or anything multiplied by zero is zero.
2. Elementary, My Dear - Noah's Ark is brought into the picture to help you multiply by two.
3. Three is a Magic Number - The first set of three is a man and a woman had a little baby. Interesting how my wife and I had our first child and it was a little girl just like the video. There three in our family.
4. The Four-Legged Zoo - Each animal in the zoo that are counted have four legs. The fun part is that my sister works in a zoo.
5. Ready or Not, Here I Come - This song helped me to get the multiplication by fives quickly learned.
6. I Got Six - interesting how they give different ways to count with six. Different people count in different ways.
7. Lucky Seven Sampson - One of the things you think about with the number seven is how it is a lucky number. Another thing that is lucky is a rabbits foot. That's why Sampson is a rabbit.
8. Figure Eight - Even though they go through the different ways to add up the number eight, the one thing that I always remember is at the very end of the song where it tuns on its side to become infinity.
9. Naughty Number Nine - This would be my favorite of the number to be multiplied. It sort of reminds me of Tom and Jerry.
10. The Good Eleven Another easy one to remember from 1 - 9 you just double the number.
11. Little Twelvetoes Little 12 toes please come back home is the line that I have always remembered from this song.

With these it was tough to limit the choice to three.

Just like the math it was amazing how much of this information I was able to apply to school. The teachers were happy that I could answer the questions. Not so happy when I broke out into tune to do the answering.

The Great American Melting Pot - the first line is - "my grandmother came from Russia". In my case my great grandmother came from the Ukraine which at the time was part of the USSR. This is not part of my top three but I still think about her ever time I hear this song. She also had a tendency to push peaches.

With the VHS the extra wording was on the back of the case.

1. No More Kings - The Founding of America
2. Fireworks - The Declaration of Independence
3. The Shot Heard 'Round the World - The Start of the Revolution
4. The Preamble - The Constitution
5. Elbow Room - The Pioneers Opening the West
6. The Great American Melting Pot - The Ethnic Diversity of America
7. Mother Necessity - Great American Inventors
8. Sufferin' Till Sufferage - Women's Right to Vote
9. I'm Just a Bill - How a Bill becomes a Law
10. Three-Ring Government - The Judicial, Legislative and Executive Branches

Another one of those growing up school stories. It was amazing how many times I started humming trying to figure out what the wording was for.

In this case I also would use these for my daughter as a way to help teach her the different ways the words were broken down. The Math and History she was better at then dad. Shh don't tell her.

With the VHS the extra wording was on the back of the case.

1. Unpack Your Adjectives - How adjectives modify nouns.
2. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here - Adverbs answer these questions: How? Where? When? Condition? Reason?
3. Conjunction Junction - How conjunctions hook up words and phrases and clauses!
4. Interjections! - Handy interjections like, "Yow! Ouch! and Hey!"
5. Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla - Using Pronouns, because "saying all those nouns, can really wear you down."
6. Verb: That's What's Happening - A verb tells it like it is, to be to see, to feel, to live.
7. A Noun Is A Person Place Or Thing - A noun's a special kind of word, Its any name you ever heard.
8. Busy Prepositions - Fly over the rainbow with the "Busy P's".
9. The Tale of Mr. Morton - "Mr. Morton is the subject of the sentence, and what the predicate says he does".

With these I don't remember using them for my science classes. Health classes maybe. But like the other songs I would catch myself singing or humming them at different times. Or to be more exact others would catch me. In school it was usually the "You still watch those what a baby". I didn't care I was a senior in high school and had been doing the same thing for most of my time in school. Sort of like reading Dr. Who books. It doesn't matter what others think. But what you do with what you have. And if I was able to use this knowledge to help others and now my kids it was time well spent. And time worth repeating.

Below you will see things about each song that I enjoyed most about the songs.

1. The Body Machine - The beginning where the vehicles disappear and the different people appear as the machines.
2. Do The Circulation - The alarm clock at the beginning of the song goes off at 7:00 AM and that is when my son has to be on the bus to go to school.
3. Electricity, Electricity - The sheep shocking the man.
4. The Energy Blues - The way the earth sings and the low notes at the end of the song.
5. Interplanet Janet - Knowing that this song has Pluto included in it even though by today's science that is no longer considered a planet.
6. Telegraph Line - It's a telegraph line, you have yours and I have mine, Its called the nervous system.
7. Them Not-So-Dry Bones The first line includes the words "Now there the working of The Lord!"
8. A Victim Of Gravity - The 50's format of the song.

Dollars and sense and Where the Money Goes are the only two that I remember. Although some of the others may have been there or also may have been useful. Sort of like the second one about the $7.50 Once A Week and living on a budget. Or Tax Man Max would have helped get me ready for the tax time dead line on April 15th of every year. And this year was the first year that my daughter had to file a return. Hmm I wonder if I should show this one to her? Again..

1. Dollars And Sense - Some basics about investing vs spending.
2. $7.50 Once A Week - child or adult it is best to work with in a budget or to at least try.
3. Where The Money Goes - This one I can relate to as it is talking about fund raisers for a marching band. Been there done that. More than once.
4. Tax Man Max - Dealing with the idea of taxes. Enough said.
5. Walkin On The Wall Street - A little lesson about investing.
6. This For That - The idea of trade vs spending cash and how the two work together.
7. Tryannosaurus Debt - Basic idea about how the national debt has kept growing.
8. The Check's In The Mail - For some bills you have to mail a check and for others you can pay over the phone.

The two seam to go together don't you think. But seriously most of these I don't remember while growing up. As you can tell by the image above it is "New". which explains a few things.

1. Report From the North Pole
2. The Little Things We Do
3. The Trash Can Band
4. You Oughta Be Saving Water
5. The Rain Forest
6. Save the Ocean
7. Fat Cat Blue: The Clean River Song
8. A Tiny Urban Zoo
9. The Energy Blues
10. Solar Power to the People
11. Windy and the Windmills
12. Don't Be a Carbon Sasquatch
13. The Three R's (Bonus Live-Action music Video starring Mitchel Musso)

Was the Schoolhouse Rock for one generation or many generations?

Actually this one is a copulation of all but the Earth. I thought that why do a review since as a whole it has already been covered. It's sort of a best of compilation.

Also you maybe able to find the above on amazon if you wish to check. But this is more of a share the videos not push the purchases.