The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield

by Karma Waltonen, Denise Du Vernay

The object of much debate, attention, and scholarship since it first aired more than 20 years ago, The Simpsons provides excellent, if unexpected, fodder for high school and college lesson plans. After all, laughing students are hardly sleeping students! But The Simpsons also provides a familiar student knowledge base which instructors can use as a jumping-off point to introduce concepts in literature, composition, linguistics, cultural studies, gender studies, and media appreciation. The authors, both of whom have been teaching The Simpsons for more than a decade, share exercises, prompts, and even syllabi that have proven successful in their own courses. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may .

340 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2010

About the author

Karma Waltonen has been teaching at UC Davis since 2000. The former President of the Margaret Atwood Society (and current editor of the peer-edited journal Margaret Atwood Studies), Dr. Karma (as her students call her) has a wide variety of interests, most of which are incredibly nerdy/geeky. For example, in 2010, she co-authored The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield. Recently, she has published on time travel in Star Trek and on the ethics of religious cults in Doctor Who and on asexuality in Sherlock and on postmodernism in The X-Files. She is working on a collection of essays on The Simpsons with her Simpsons partner, Denise Du Vernay, and just finished a collection of innovative writing assignments in context with Dr. Melissa Bender of the UWP. Service to the university includes administering the Upper Division Composition Exam, coordinating the Entry Level Writing Program, working extensively with the Campus Book Project, mentoring in the Guardian Scholars Program, and giving special lectures for the STEP program. She also speaks at various ComicCons and at international conferences. Dr. Karma's classes include 18, 101, 102D, 102J, 102L, 104F, and courses for the Freshman Seminar Program, including "The Simpsons: Satire and Postmodernism" and "Writing and Performing Stand-Up Comedy."

Reviews

[Joe Vince · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nowadays, you can't swing a Hello Kitty without hitting someone who has turned a paltry piece of pop culture ephemera into academic study. And while I'm a big proponent of dissecting low art, I can't help from rolling my eyes at knowing that there's a blogger out there somewhere writing 25,000 words on the feminist implications of She's the Sheriff. And i don't think I'm alone in that.

So I can imagine the collective exasperated sigh of some readers when they come across a title like Simpsons in the Classroom. "Another book about the cultural significance of this damn cartoon?" Yes, another book about that damn cartoon.

But guess what? It's a damn good book for the casual reader and especially teachers.

Denise Du Vernay and Karma Waltonen approach their subject matter not simply as unrepentant fans (which they are) but as unrepentant and enthusiastic teachers. This isn't a book that is trying to convince pop-cult critics that The Simpsons are just as important as Wuthering Heights. It's a book that gives teachers strategies to engage students and arm them with the tools they'll need to approach and analyze fictions, artworks and other "higher" culture. It's a way to get students to think critically by using a ubiquitous TV show that many of them have fond feelings for, and I think that's not just a noble effort but an ultimately smart one. Kids aren't turned off by analyzing great literature because they don't find it worthwhile; they are turned off because they're asked to look at works that don't speak to them. However, if you can show them that there's merit in the culture that they consume every day and then show them how to get at those gems of insight, you're equipping them with the abilities to do that with other works.

Yes, this book is ultimately designed as a text to be used by instructors in a classroom. But it's written in such an accessible and entertaining way that the casual readers can get a lot out if it, too. And living in an age of online pop culture scholars, that's quite an audience who will enjoy this book.

[TheSaint · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this one for a teacher in my high school building who will adore it, even though the content is geared for higher edumacation!
Readers looking for a show-by-show recap would be disappointed, but the episodes are given enough analysis for teachers to decide how to appropriately use them in the classroom.
Another nice feature is the handout and writing prompts, even lesson plans, based on theme in the humanities.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not an educator by any means, but this book makes a convincing argument for, and a through guide to, including The Simpsons in undergrad and high-school curricula of all sorts.

I am a Simpsons fan by every means, so I can vouch for Waltonen and Du Vernay's unrivaled expertise in, and love for, TV's greatest series. I especially admire their positively Lionel-Hutzian manipulation of facts to find a Simpsons example for every letter-K entry in E.D. Hirsch, Jr.'s Cultural Literacy: What Every American Should Know .

Side note: you can also read TSitC co-author Denise Du Vernay's enjoyable and convincing argument for Sandy Cheeks being a feminist icon in the collection SpongeBob SquarePants and Philosophy .

[Marie Wynhoff-Naramore · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a source for research and pedagogical materials, this book is rich and useful. It's bibliographic sections and reviews of literature provide an insightful guide for consulting Simpsons criticism. Their lesson plans and paper assignment as well thought out and appropriate as well.

Toward the end of the book, I found myself struggling with some of their definitions of literary/critical terms as well as the overall organization of what was a very generalized application of the show.

Overall however, this is a useful read for anyone considering the Simpsons either for the college classroom or their own academic research.

[Melva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not your typical book on the simpsons. For scholars and severe die-hard fans. Plus, my friend Denise is one of the authors.