5/28/15

"Disney's Healthy Way In Wonderland" (1978 Worksheet masters)

Here's an unusual item.  You know how a certain giant company seems like it's poised to try and take over the world?  You know how Karl Marx is credited with saying that if you take over the schoolrooms, the rest of the country will fall (or something like that)?  Well, apparently, that was exactly Disney's plan in the late 70's!

Or maybe not...but I was in an elementary classroom at this time, and I don't recall my school ever using "fun" types of worksheets like this.  Which brings up another "remember when" scenario! Remember when teachers would use the "pre-photocopy," purple-inked mimeograph method to copy worksheets for class?  I remember teachers coming into class with an armload of freshly-mimeographed purple worksheets.  There was an argument among the other second-graders as to whether the hot-off-the-press papers actually smelled like "grape," but they always smelled like chemicals to me...of course, I never ate the paste, either, but still.

What we have here, then, is a master workbook, full of the 24 originals that would be copied for classroom use, from the halcyon days known as the late 70's, under the oddly-constructed title of "Disney's Healthy Way in Wonderland." (?)

 First off, the cover.  Not only did somebody forget to color Mickey's nose, but it looks like this group of friends have met in the woods to do some oddly-timed teeth-brushing.  You know, like you used to just randomly do as a child.  And, there's no water in sight.  Not a creek, stream, bucket, damp washcloth...nothing.  And just look how fastidious Goofy is about the two teeth that he's got:
"Aw, man, yeah...toothpaste!  Toothpaste....gimme the toothpaste...!" "Now remember boys, only the first one is free!"





There is actually a bit of Wonderland on the pages inside, with a couple of characters like the Mad Hatter, and I think I saw the Smoking Caterpillar (wait, how's THAT healthy?).  
From the back cover, here is the rest of the massive curriculum, which includes titles like "Standards and Citizenship With Winnie the Pooh."  Try making sense out of that.  You will also notice "Metrics Is Easy," part of the failed attempt to push the Metric System on the USA during that time.  Also, another convoluted title:  "Jiminy Cricket's I'm No Fool With Safety," which was probably 24 pages of how not to get squashed (or end up on a fish-hook).  My favorite though has to be "Winnie the Pooh, Nutrition and You."  I can imagine the screams of the President's wife if this book were still being used, where a nation of schoolchildren are taught about the virtues of a daily allowance of five gallons of honey!

3 comments:

Chris Sobieniak said...

Here's an unusual item. You know how a certain giant company seems like it's poised to try and take over the world? You know how Karl Marx is credited with saying that if you take over the schoolrooms, the rest of the country will fall (or something like that)? Well, apparently, that was exactly Disney's plan in the late 70's!

It stayed that way into the 80's, I remember getting stuff like this to work with.

From the back cover, here is the rest of the massive curriculum, which includes titles like "Standards and Citizenship With Winnie the Pooh." Try making sense out of that. You will also notice "Metrics Is Easy," part of the failed attempt to push the Metric System on the USA during that time.

"I will not hear another work about that darn French System spoken in this house!" (not that my mom ever talked like that, but I'm sure that was the feeling elsewhere, I actually liked it anyway, too bad it never became a thing)

Sampoerna Quatrain said...

Well, the Metric System certainly is easier, to just multiply and divide by tens...but having a long-established system, plus American stubbornness, meant that it would fail here.
I can't talk about the Metric System without mentioning THE METRIC SYSTEM, which was a show that my local PBS picked up in the late 70's. It's just about the only show from my youth I haven't found copies of in all these years. It was an insane headtrip.

Chris Sobieniak said...

I bet (for anything that came from the 70's), and certainly that American stubbornness is what helped us to defeat that form of foreign invasion!

Many, many years ago when my high school was throwing out discarded 16mm film prints of random obsolete subjects, this one showed up and I had to get it!

I offer this online despite the poor man's telecine effort I gave it!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xne490_metric-meets-the-inchworm-1974_tech