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David Spates Schoolhouse Rock helped
me "We the people, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America." It's the preamble to the Constitution, but
I'm sure most of you knew that. I had it memorized by the time
I was 6 years old. When I typed it out just a moment ago, the
only thing I got wrong was that I wrote "ensure" instead
of "insure." (I'm pretty certain "ensure"
is correct in the context, but who am I to second-guess the Founding
Fathers?) Yes indeedy, I had the Constitution's preamble
committed to memory by the tender age of 6, and I have Schoolhouse
Rock to thank for it. For you non-Generation X'ers (have I mentioned
how much I loathe that lazily-attached name?), Schoolhouse Rock
is a television feature broadcast in between the Saturday morning
cartoons during the 1970s. I've heard that you can still catch
Schoolhouse Rock on ABC today, but since I haven't plopped myself
down in front of the tube with a big bowl of Fruity Pebbles to
watch "Superfriends" in a few years, I can't confirm
this. Anyway, Schoolhouse Rock used short, catchy
songs and animated characters to educate kids in a host of subjects
everything from American history to multiplication to grammar
to science. The best thing about Schoolhouse Rock, however, was
that kids didn't know they were learning something. It just sort
of crept into their heads, and before you knew it your child
was reciting the preamble or counting by sevens or explaining
the difference between adjectives and adverbs or even drawing
a diagram of an electromagnet. When I was in the third or fourth grade, my
classmates and I had an assignment. The teacher told us that
we had to memorize something, and I remember immediately cringing.
I detested, and still do to this day, mindless rote. Regurgitating
facts just isn't where my mental powers (and I use the term loosely)
are most suited. The teacher informed us that we would be memorizing
the preamble to the Constitution. In a couple days, we would
be expected to transcribe the full text from memory. Chalk up an easy "A" for the Spates
lad. It was fairly obvious who was a Saturday morning
cartoon devotee that day. There were maybe seven or eight of
us who just grinned, armed with the knowledge that we could bang
out the preamble easily right then and there. Apparently, some
kids didn't watch Schoolhouse Rock. They used the breaks between
cartoons to run to the bathroom, pester their parents or freshen
their bowls of Fruit Pebbles. Well, they were sorry that day. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to complete
an assignment with absolutely no effort whatsoever. I and my
fellow Schoolhouse Rockers had heard the preamble sung so many
times that the thought of studying it before test day was laughable. I, and I guarantee the other Schoolhouse Rockers
in my class, hummed the preamble tune on test day as we wrote
the "lyrics." So what's my point with my cute little Schoolhouse
Rock story? Well, the point is twofold. One: It's just a trip down Nostalgia Ave.
The Chronicle newsroom was embroiled the other day in memories
of Schoolhouse Rock, and that's what brought back my memories
of that assignment and my effortless "A." And two: It serves as a reminder that young
children are paying attention. They're able to soak up all the
knowledge placed in front of them, and at the same time they're
absorbing all the junk. The good and bad it's all going
into kids. You get out what you put in, I say. Put garbage into
your kid and see what happens. Conversely, put knowledge in and
see what happens. Things stick with you at that age. I'm 29
years old and just wrote text I memorized 23 years ago. I studied
German in high school and Spanish in college and can't remember
much more than tag is day and leche is milk. I guess there's a reason they call them "the
formative years." |