The Show Has Changed Education and How Students Learn

Teachers are constantly seeking for new ways to engage their pupils and improve learning. Invoking popular culture is sometimes necessary, and who better to do so than The Simpsons? For years, Richard Pioreck, an English professor, incorporated Simpsons references in his college seminars on a variety of topics. One course was actually an online literary course that was solely based on episodes of the show, including A Christmas Carol by Dickens and The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

A book about utilizing The Simpsons as a teaching tool, The Simpsons in the Classroom: Empowering the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield, was co-authored by an English professor from Chicago's Xavier University. Other educational institutions have adopted the Simpsons as a starting point to teach subjects including sociology, political science, economics, and philosophy.

Not everyone appreciates the usage of Simpsons references in classes, though. In 2010, a petition to have the show removed from a media module being taught to pupils at a UK school garnered over 400 signatures. The module focused on a single episode and the beginning as a way to demonstrate language in media as well as satire and parody.