Saturday School- ABCs Schoolhouse Rocks

So I'm riding shotgun in my friend's SUV when he decides to pull out his iPhone and use both hands to text, while driving with his knees. Pretty certain that this is illegal, I calmly share with him that there  happens to be a law in Georgia against texting and driving, and quite possibly knee steering.  He pointedly-and erroneously- informs me that there is no law, it's simply just a bill. And then the analog memories started to flood my mind...

"I'm Just a Bill"

ABCs "Schoolhouse Rocks" circa 1975

I am convinced that the current state of our educational system will greatly improve if we just return "Schoolhouse Rock" to the television airwaves. From 1973 to 1985, ABC ran this series of animated shorts in between Saturday morning cartoons (another television relic). The "Schoolhouse"shorts were typically about three minutes long and did a super job of tricking kids into learning something worthwhile on the weekend. Deceptively delightful, the episodes showed lively musical numbers on subjects like mathematics, grammar, science, civics, and economy.

"Schoolhouse Rock" was created by David McCall, an ingenious dad who noticed that his grade school son could remember all the lyrics to popular rock songs, but multiplication tables? Not so much. Well I don't know how much it helped his son pass the third grade, but I can tell you these shows definitely had a Pavlovian effect on me. I was exposed to Schoolhouse since birth, and by the time I could identify the number three I automatically knew it was the magic number.

Bob Dourough, a jazz singer and composer, was the genius behind many of the memorable melodies on "Schoolhouse Rocks" such as "Conjunction, Junction",  "Electricity, Electricity", and "Three is the Magic Number". The musical numbers ranged from folksy to bluesy, from soulful to classic rock, and had memorable melodies, which was obviously the purpose.

No more, no less...

"Three is the Magic Number" by Bob Dourough

The thing that I love the most about Schoolhouse Rocks is that it's so quentessentially 70s. The illustrators drew characters that reflected our diverse American population and the "everybody's beautiful" sentiment of that time. Coming off the turbulence of the 60s, it was refreshing for kids to see little red haired, freckled white kids happily playing with little black kids with afros, all learning their times tables and how to unpack their adjectives.

"Unpack Your Adjectives"

Schoolhouse Rocks circa 1973

I vote for "Schoolhouse Rock" in every school-that should be a law.

Stay tuned for more analog love!