I loved these schoolhouse rock videos when they were first broadcast back in the Seventies right before the bicentennial. Among a fair number of kids I knew they sparked an interest in history. Of the videos, I believe No More Kings has the catchiest tune. For a cartoon, The Shot Heard Round the World does a fairly good job of conveying information about the Revolution in a very short span of time: it manages to include the opening battles of the war, Washington as the central figure of the war, the role of the militia, the endurance of the Continentals, the battle of Trenton, Valley Forge, the frequent defeats of the Americans, the importance of diplomacy and foreign intervention, and the decisive victory at Yorktown. Fireworks is a nice opening view of the Declaration for kids.  If readers have kids, or if, like me, part of them has never really grown up, watching these cartoons can be a good way to get into the Fourth of July spirit !
Revolution, Independence and Schoolhouse Rock
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
These are some of my daughter’s all time favorite videos. “Fireworks” has a very jazzy feel to it which I love. The composers and singers of the Schoolhouse Rock songs were very artistic.
We have America Rock on DVD. My kids love it as much as I did. I still sing the SHR “We the People” in my head whenever reading the Preamble to the Constitution. Great stuff.
Pardon me while I put on my tinfoil hat for a moment, but has anyone else ever noticed that, in the “Preamble” one, whenever they get to the “provide for the common defense” lyrics (the second time through), the soldiers are wearing what appear to be UN-style baby blue helmets?
😉
Barney Fife is extremely disturbed by that factoid:
🙂