For thousands of years, learning was done through song. From the
history of the clan to how to worship the Gods/Goddesses, from the use
of plants for medicine to the navigation of aboriginal clans through
their year long trek, song is used to aid in learning. Many cultures
developed specialized professions, such as the Bard in Druidism. They
would train for ten to fifteen years, learning stories and poetry to
both enlighten and entertain, and were held in high esteem.

Today teaching through song is, in some ways, making a comeback. Who
doesn't remember "School House Rock?" "I'm Just a Bill" and
"Conjunction Junction" still go through my head occasionally, and are
quite handy! Most teaching songs are aimed at children, but this
method of learning and retaining knowledge is very valid in adults.
Another, although unlikely, favorite tutorial of mine is the "Galaxy
Song" from Monty Python's movie "the Meaning of Life:"

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.

The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.

We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

This one helped me get through Astronomy 1 class a few years back.

Why is it that song lyrics stay with us years after we've heard them?
Does the rhythm and beat communicate with our deeper psyche? Is this
why songs and poetry can move us so? Rhythmic drumming and chanting
has been used as a method of meditation and spiritual connection since
the beginning of time. Perhaps this ancient learning method should be
brought back in full force, to preserve our knowledge to be passed
along to further generations. If knowledge is power, then the passing
along of knowledge empowers all, without lessening anyone's status.
Here is a quick lesson from the past: throughout history those in
power sought to keep the lower classes from being taught anything but
the most basic skills. To be able to read was judged to be the realm
of the church or others in power. Why? Because that takes away
dissent. People had to accept what was being told to them, as they had
no way to prove otherwise. Ignorance turns humans into slaves, but
even the slaves of the American south used songs to communicate how to
escape to a new life.

Written by Kait Simpson

The lyrics to "Galaxy Song" were used without permission of their owner.