by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

In an article in the Washington Post, Jay Mathews lamented that his loss of electricity and the internet due to a snowstorm had reduced him to writing a column about television shows that featured an educational theme.  After an extensive review of “Glee” he then solicited readers to give him “top five” lists of their favorites.   Since that same storm had also robbed me of my electricity and internet, I have decided to take some time to respond to his request.

A vast wasteland

TV shows about high schools are a pretty dreary lot.   I accept the reality that I may be the only person on the planet who does not adore “Glee”.  Perhaps my evaluation of that show is skewed by the fact that while I had many exhilarating days during my forty-year teaching career I cannot recall a single one that would have come close to paralleling an episode of that show.  The protagonists and antagonists in a real school are far more nuanced and complicated than the broad characters portrayed on that Fox musical/drama.  The same critique could apply to virtually every other attempt by television to bring the academic world to the screen.   An honest look at the classroom simply does not translate into “must see” TV.  That shortcoming, however, does not mean that education has not been given a boost by one long-running series.

A surprising choice

As I read the column by Mr. Mathews one show sprang to mind.  For more than a decade CSI has been a strong, if possibly unintentional, advocate for the educational community.  For many years this drama featuring the work of the crime scene investigators of Las Vegas was the most popular show on television.  More importantly, it promotes the use of brain power in lieu of muscle.  From the perspective of the classroom teacher it has been an oasis of intellectual thought in a desert of mindless violence and over simplification. 

In a testosterone-laden era where Jack Bauer of “24” would shoot first and apologize later while “Hawaii Five-O” among others provides at least one massive explosion between each commercial break, the featured characters on CSI painstakingly solve every crime one piece of evidence at a time.   There is no glamour in their endeavors.  Their work is presented as slow and tedious.  On many occasions their initial efforts to solve the case fail and they have to start over.  Multiple attempts are the rule not the exception.  For the classroom teacher these efforts compare favorably to the work required to solve a complex math problem, perform a complicated science lab, studying a play by William Shakespeare or determining the underlying causes of World War II.   Based on conversations I had with my students it was clear that at the height of its popularity CSI impressed upon adolescents the power of logical thinking and diligence.  This outcome is no small feat and is a testament to the power of the media.

Life imitating fiction

In an effort to build on this message I actually used an episode of CSI as a portion of a lesson on parametric motion problems.  The premise of the show was that a gunshot randomly fired into the air was the cause of a homicide rather than from a suspect a few feet in front of the victim.  Using procedures similar to those utilized by the investigators portrayed on the show, the class demonstrated that the entry angle of the bullet was consistent with the downward trajectory of one fired virtually straight up and the depth of the wound equated to a distance of several city blocks.   By the time this class was completed there were more than a few converts to the power of math. 

I truly believe this level of success could not have been achieved without the influence of this show.  CSI  represents the educational process at it best.