Schoolhouse Rock: Songs to Fuel Your School Day
Date
Every Friday afternoon in our office, I deejay the Clarity Disco Dance Party. It involves a lot less dancing—and disco—than the name implies, but it’s definitely a party. I play songs crowd-sourced from my co-workers based on a selected theme.
Themes such as:
- Octopus’ Garden : Things found underwater in the titles or artist name
- Seeing Double : Artists or song titles with the same word appearing consecutively
- First & Last Concert : Two songs each from the first and last concert you attended
Sometimes the themes are based on the season or events, like “songs or artists with military designations” in honor of Memorial Day (think “Corporal Brown” by Toad the Wet Sprocket and “Captain Jack” by Billy Joel).
A new school year has started up, so we thought Songs about Education would be a perfect theme, right?
Except...
Most well-known songs that mention teachers or school were written by disaffected rock stars channeling their teenage angst. The songs are not exactly paeans to the love of learning.
Some excerpts:
Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"
We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Brownsville Station's "Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room"
Now, teacher, don't you fill me up with your rules
Everybody knows that smokin' ain't allowed in school
The Beatles' "Getting Better"
I used to get mad at my school
The teachers who taught me weren't cool
Alice Cooper's "Schools Out for Summer"
School's out for summer
School's out forever
My school's been blown to pieces
Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher"
[Lyrics clipped by editor. Nice Try.]
So far, not the greatest playlist for the second graders’ next round of musical chairs.
For that we’ll need to broaden the scope, so I challenged my co-workers to come up with songs suitable for school, that inspired curiosity, discovery, and imagination. We called the playlist Songs to Fuel Your School Day .
Our shiny red apple to you. Let us know how we did at blog@clarityinnovations.com.