Schoolhouse Rock: Pedagogy, Politics, and Pop

Abstract

For never are the ways of music moved without the greatest political laws being moved—Plato ( The Republic , 424c) Rock stars … is there anything they don't know?—Homer Simpson (Episode 71, “Marge vs the Monorail”). Great thinkers from Plato to Homer suggest that music and musicians can illuminate important issues and inspire us to think about them in different ways. Indeed, I have found music a useful pedagogical tool—or at least an interesting catalyst for discussion—in my 8 a.m. Introduction to International Relations (IR) course. The idea, which I stole from Kate Weaver at the University of Kansas, is to play a song at the beginning of every class that illuminates some element of the lecture for that day. Ten minutes before class starts I put up a slide with the name of the song, the artist, title of the lecture, and a brief outline of the subject that we will cover in class. Then I turn the volume way up and allow the song to repeat until the beginning of class. Plato …