School House Rock

Let's just talk about this for a second:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twFs9Vk6F0A

For those of you born after 1992, this educational Saturday morning mini-special used to air during the cartoon line-up that was marketed and watched by millions of young elementary school aged children in America during the 90's. "School House Rock" became a favored segment among adults and kids alike for introducing the young ones to elementary concepts of linguistics, policy making and history.

Now the problematic stuff: Ummm, everything! Obviously, school house rock actually does have a net positive effect on the education of children. It really does a commendable job on both making common facts palpable for the learning mind as well as making it fun and memorable. Clearly the perspective is very interested insomuch as how history is presented. in this video alone, so many narratives are lost of the Native settlers, the trafficking of Sub-saharan Africans as well as European and Chinese immigrants. And the problems only start there.

This problem is what Multicultural education seeks to critique and I find this a great illustration of how blind common perspectives of history can be to the equally valid experiences of "other" people. But Thank God THAT doesn't still go on to this day...

--TAHS