Readers of certain age probably remember with fondness The Electric Company on PBS. At the very least, it was acceptable “educational” TV for 6 to 9-year olds who had outgrown Sesame Street. The New York Times reports PBS is reviving the show, although it will have to work harder to find an audience in the increasingly crowded, (if content-free) kids media arena:
“Refitted for the age of hip-hop and informed by decades of further educational research on reading, the 2009 version of “The Electric Company” is a weekly, more danceable version of its former daily self. The series, which is expected to make its debut in January, faces challenges the original never did (trying to stand out amid so much children’s programming and to shake the stigma of educational television) as well as familiar ones (trying to make reading a positive experience for youngsters).”
Now if someone would only revive Schoolhouse Rock, which probably did more to get me interested in social studies than any of my teachers. More than 30 years later, I still know all the words to those songs.
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Quit your belly-aching and go buy the dvd and relive the magic of Conjunction Junction.
I own it, and have force fed it to my daughter and my 5th graders. But I’m a man of the people, Ken. I want EVERYONE to have it!
Cheers,
Robert
I have gone through more hell with that DVD than the breath of the fingers can exhale.
I love Conjunction Junction and other songs of Schoolhouse Rock. So much that I tried for three days to bring it to my kids.
The school’s DVD player has no remote, and you can’t navigate the menu from the player itself. Since there’s no way to play this DVD without navigating the menu, we were stuck.
We made heroic efforts to get ahold of a laptop with a DVD drive. For three days straight, we could not find one.
I meant to bring in my own DVD drive, but kept forgetting. That is our last hope, but it relies on my memory.
In the meantime, I showed the kids how to make up a song. We wrote a song together describing how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
And despite these defeats and tangential victories, I still envision the day when my students will behold Schoolhouse Rock.
There are only three things I’m sure all of my 5th graders learned from me:
1. The difference between “can I” and “may I”
“Mr. P, can I go to the bathroom?”
“Of course.” [Student gets up to leave.]
“Where are you going?
“To the bathroom.”
“Who gave you permission to leave the room?”
“You said I can go to the bathroom.”
“Of course you can. You’d have died long ago if you couldn’t”
“Ooooooh, right! “Mr. P, MAY I use the bathroom?”
“No.”
2. The answer to the question “Do you know how to divide?
Answer: “Does McDonalds Sell Cheese Burgers?” DMSCB: Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Compare, Bring down
3. The words to Schoolhouse Rock’s Tale of Mr. Morton
“Mr. Morton walked down the street.
Mr. Morton walked…
Mr. Morton is the subject of the sentence!
And what the predicate says, he does.”
Get that DVD player, Diana.