Children Can Learn Civics from The Animaniacs
The Animaniacs are one of the best cartoons of all time. They were always able to mix silly, subversive, and satirical humor that was appealing for children and adults alike that at its best rivaled The Simpsons in 1990s cartoon comedy with references to everyone from Bill Clinton and Martin Scorsese to Prince and Madonna. Recently, The show was rebooted on Hulu. In both the Original Animaniacs and the reboot, there are opportunities to teach children some civics lessons. In the new version of the show we get a new song called “Suffragette City” that starts off about Women’s fight for the right to vote 100 years ago and then flips into a song about cartoon characters fighting to get their right to vote which can be used to start off discussions with children about voting and voting rights. In the Original version of the show there were also classic songs that listed all the nations of the world and all the states/capitals in the United States which are both fun and actually do help children learn the names of states and countries. (at least it helped me when I was 9 years old). It is important to note, that since the original countries of the world, there are some new countries and some that no longer exist, but that is actually a good way to talk about how the world changes to young children. Watch all 3 videos below.
