Schoolhouse Rock Still Rocks

Anyone who was around in the 70s and early 80s remembers those Schoolhouse Rock music videos that came on during ABC’s Saturday morning cartoons. Animated shorts with catchy tunes like “Three is a Magic Number,” "Conjunction Junction," “I'm Just a Bill,” and "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here" taught the children of America about math, grammar, civics, etc.

Emmy Award-winning Schoolhouse Rock was the brainchild of David McCall, an advertising executive whose son was having trouble learning multiplication tables but seemed to have an excellent memory for pop song lyrics. McCall decided the solution to his son’s troubles was to marry education and music, and thus began the songs and animation that eventually became, the edutainment phenomenon, Schoolhouse Rock.

In the years that followed, David McCall with help from George Newall, Tom Yohe, Bob Dorough, Radford Stone, Lynn Ahrens, et al., tackled material in almost every area of elementary education. The result is a few dozen three-minute music videos that make learning fun and remarkably memorable. If you grew up during the Schoolhouse Rock era, I’ll bet you still remember the lyrics to some of those songs and still have not forgotten the lessons they taught you. Can you believe that was twenty to thirty years ago?

The good news is that all of these Schoolhouse Rock videos are available on DVD, and the subjects they cover are still relevant. You can take an enjoyable stroll down memory lane while your child has a blast learning about all sorts of subjects.

The comprehensive Schoolhouse Rock Special 30th Anniversary Edition DVD is available from most DVD retailers and generally costs less than $15. Please note that this material is geared toward elementary school children. Preschoolers will be able to enjoy the music and animation, but will probably find much of the subject matter too complex to understand. Also note that this Schoolhouse Rock DVD is controlled by Disney, so prepare to be assaulted with commercials when you press the play button.