Schools showing 'The Electric Company' to kids who were too old for it

[bandit957]

HEEEEEYYYYY YOOOOOUUUUU GUUUUUYYYYYS!!!!!

Did this ever happen to you?

In 5th grade, sometimes they'd have us watch 'The Electric Company' on the TV in the classroom. The thing about this is that we were too old for it. We all knew how to read, as this was 5th grade.

Don't get me wrong, I loved 'The Electric Company'. But we were too advanced for the educational aspect of the show.

My middle school was 6th to 8th grade, but sometimes I'd hear 'The Electric Company' blaring in from nearby classrooms.

[hotdogPi]

In my 8th grade chorus, the teacher gave us a song that was meant for little kids.

[Rothman]

No one is too old for The Electric Company.

[Max Rockatansky]

The last time a school I went to referenced the Electric Company was during the 6th Grade.

[Rothman]

The last time a school I went to referenced the Electric Company was during the 6th Grade.

It was rebooted a few years back.

[I-39]

They still played Schoolhouse Rock for us in middle school.

I also remember once we had to watch a Care Bears episode in middle school "Language Arts" (English) to learn about the concept of "plot".

[formulanone]

I still remember a lot of spelling mnemonics from Electric Company. I remember it followed Sesame Street, but I'm guessing it's been off the air for well over 30 years.

I recall watching a few episodes of "Letter People" in 4th grade, but I don't remember why. That theme song was catchy, so that's all I remember.

I'd watch some kids cartoons in Spanish sometimes when I was taking it in high school.

[vdeane]

I don't know about The Electric Company, but there was one day in high school where the people who didn't go on the whale watch field trip watched The Magic School Bus in biology.

[thspfc]

Don't ever buy Electric Company for more than 100. Even if you get Water Works you're probably not going to get a return on it.

[SkyPesos]

Don't think I watched the Electric Company at all

Magic School Bus and Schoolhouse Rock mentioned above are some classics for me during elementary and middle school.

[index]

Up until my senior year I was given basic word searches with little bubbly clip art characters by this one teacher I had several times. For a grade. An easy grade, but I don't know why he did it.

[ErmineNotyours]

We might have been in the 5th or 6th grade when the teacher turned on Boomerang, a local Seattle show with puppets, hosted by Marni Nixon, which was meant to be a soft, boring show to get the station's public affairs credit up.  When that show ended with the teacher still out of the room, the next show up was Good Morning America, and they started the show with the shower scene from Psycho.  Slight change in tone.

[Rothman]

We might have been in the 5th or 6th grade when the teacher turned on Boomerang, a local Seattle show with puppets, hosted by Marni Nixon, which was meant to be a soft, boring show to get the station's public affairs credit up.  When that show ended with the teacher still out of the room, the next show up was Good Morning America, and they started the show with the shower scene from Psycho.  Slight change in tone.

Pretty sure Boomerang had some sort of broader syndication.

[bandit957]

Apparently, new episodes of the original run ended in 1977, but they kept showing it in reruns at least as late as 1990.

Another thing like this that lasted into 1990 was that funky music bed they used at the end of 'Sesame Street'. When I regularly watched it in the '70s, each episode concluded with a black screen with tiny letters that used this music bed and went on for a minute or so. It was a funky music track that used chimes and stuff.

[GCrites]

Jeez, that's pretty much past 3-2-1 Contact age even.

Show Romper Room to high school kids in the '80s and, according to the movies of the time such as Rock N Roll High School, Lean on Me etc., they would start spraypainting the inside of the school during "Quick Draw".