Pig: Hey, Goat... what does it take for a book to become known as great literature?
Rat: It has to both bore and confuse everyone.
Goat: No.
Rat: Except for high school English teachers. They have to like it.
Rat: It has to both bore and confuse everyone.
Goat: No.
Rat: Except for high school English teachers. They have to like it.
These are works of fiction or nonfiction that people tend to study during their education. These are usually works that are considered cultural or historically significant, and thus important for students to learn about. They're also often used because they allow students to practice specific analytical skills. These works can serve as an introduction to concepts that might otherwise be difficult for students to understand, and therefore they tend to be broadly accessible and not overly experimental or avant-garde, especially for works taught at primary and secondary levels.
This class of works is, incidentally, Older Than Dirt: The Epic of Gilgamesh survives in large part because the Epic was grammar homework for royal children for hundreds of years, and so many tablets remain of their schooling that a large portion of the Epic can be read today, with more discovered each year. The same is true of many ancient Egyptian texts, particularly ones from the Middle Kingdom (Dynasties 11-13, c. 2040-1780 BCE), which produced works like the Instructions of Amenemhat
and the Story of Sinuhe that generations of Egyptian scribes learned to write on basically until the end of education in hieroglyphics over 2000 years later.
See also Small Reference Pools, as these works form a pool of well-known works.
Compare Lit. Class Tropes, which is about tropes you'd most likely study at school. Also compare From Entertainment to Education, for works that are used as educational material for other disciplines.
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Anime & Manga
- AKIRA
- Blue Literature is an adaptation of classic Japanese literature, including Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human and Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, and is essentially a visual companion to the Japanese high school literature curriculum.
- Bakuman。 is frequently used in media studies and creative writing courses to illustrate the professional manga industry and the editorial process. It has also been used to teach The Hero's Journey aspect of storytelling.
- Barefoot Gen, in Japan.
- Cells at Work! has been used in some medical schools to teach various aspects and functions of the human body.
- Death Note is a common choice for high school ethics and philosophy modules to spark debates on justice, the death penalty, and utilitarianism.
- Dr. STONE is highly regarded for its application of the scientific method. It is often used in STEM contexts to illustrate how primitive resources can be transformed into modern technology, such as creating antibiotics or electricity from scratch.
- Grave of the Fireflies, often used to teach elementary school students in Japan about what World War II was like for the civilians.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers, despite being controversial for its slapstick nature, has been used as a mnemonic tool for world history and geopolitics, personifying nations to explain international relations and historical alliances.
- In This Corner of the World is another staple for teaching the civilian experience during World War II, specifically focusing on the home front in Kure and Hiroshima.
- March Comes in Like a Lion is sometimes used in classes for discussing emotional intelligence and mental health, as well as the cultural history of Shōgi.
- Moyashimon is often cited in microbiology circles to personify bacteria and fungi, making the complex world of fermentation and pathogens accessible to students.
- Silver Spoon is frequently used in agricultural and vocational studies. It provides a grounded look at the ethics of food production, the reality of farming, and the physical labor involved in the industry.
- Thermae Romae is generally used to teach Ancient Roman history, engineering, and architecture. It compares the bathhouse cultures of the Roman Empire and modern Japan, offering a unique cross-cultural historical analysis.
Comic Books
- Fun Home: Common in classes studying LGBT issues.
- Maus: Notable for being used in increasingly more history and literature classes despite being a graphic novel.
- Persepolis
Films — Animation
- Many Disney Animated Canon films are often used in English classes to teach storytelling in general, namely The Hero's Journey, the Fairy Tale, and the Three-Act Structure. Several examples include:
- Pinocchio
- Fantasia, though some segments have been used in music appreciation courses to explain classical music.
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
- Beauty and the Beast
- Aladdin
- The Lion King
- It has become a bit of a cliche in many American schools to show Pocahontas, not because the film is historically accurate but because it's not — it's now a common film to use to teach students about how American history can be sanitized, Hollywood stereotypes about Native Americans, etc. as well as deconstructing a work of media more broadly.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)
- Mulan is also a popular choice among American schools when teaching what life in Ancient China was like.
- The song "We Know the Way" from Moana has been used in world history classes as a way to illustrate the navigation techniques used by Polynesians.
- Pixar films are used in some English classes to teach about storytelling. They have a course at Khan Academy about this sort of thing. It can be found here.
- Monsters, Inc. 1
- Finding Nemo
- Inside Out and its sequel have also been used to teach patients and students how to recognize emotions and understand their maturity, especially by psychologists working with kids who have a difficult time vocalizing their feelings.
- Pixar Shorts
- For the same reasons as Disney, the animated works of DreamWorks have also seen some academic use:
- Like Mulan, The Prince of Egypt has also been shown in history classes to explain Ancient Egyptian life and civilizations.
- The Shrek franchise as a whole.
- Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
- Bee Movie has seen multiple uses. The first is teaching the life cycle of the honey bee, and the other has also been used to teach the challenges and struggles of getting a job in life.
- Monsters vs. Aliens
Films — Live-Action
- 12 Angry Men, often to illustrate conflict management in a business setting.
- 12 Years a Slave: One of a few biographical films used in US History classrooms.
- 8½
- Alexander Nevsky
- Amarcord
- American Beauty: Why? Because of its influence on post-2000 arthouse and mainstream films alike.
- American Psycho
- Annie Hall
- Apocalypse Now
- L'avventura (The Adventure, 1960)
- The Battle of Algiers: Thanks to its meticulously researched depiction of the Algerian War and the tactics used by both sides to fight it (to the point that the US release added a title card stating that it contained no newsreel or documentary footage), it has been used not only by militaries as a guide for counterinsurgency tactics, but also by radical leftist and nationalist groups as a guide for guerrilla warfare, to the point that it was accused of inspiring real-life terrorists.
- The Battleship Potemkin
- The Bicycle Thief
- The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
- Blade Runner
- Blow Up
- Breathless, along with other French New Wave movies, in film classes.
- Advanced knowledge of Jean-Luc Godard's filmmaking is practically mandatory to get in French film schools, even.
- Bridge of Spies, to complement the study of the Berlin Wall and the effects it had on society.
- Brother Future
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
- Casablanca
- Cyrano de Bergerac, in France, to complement the study of the play
- Un Chien Andalou
- Many works by Charlie Chaplin, typically:
- Citizen Kane
- Contempt
- Dillinger Is Dead
- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
- La Dolce Vita
- Do the Right Thing
- Dr. Strangelove
- Primary school students in North America were often shown the Duck and Cover short film to prepare them in the event a missile or nuclear attack struck the continent. This was especially true when the Cold War was at its height, particularly during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Soviet Union's stockpiling of nuclear weapons. Though it has largely faded away after the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, the film is still shown to students in 20th century history classes.
- Dunkirk
- L'eclisse
- Fight Club
- Fists in the Pocket
- The 400 Blows
- Full Metal Jacket
- Gattaca
- The General (1926)
- Gladiator (2000)
- The Godfather and/or The Godfather Part II
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- Gone with the Wind
- The Grand Budapest Hotel and other works by Wes Anderson are commonly studied in film classes for their art direction and other elements.
- The Great Train Robbery
- Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, such as:
- The Jazz Singer
- Kes
- Koyaanisqatsi: if you've seen this film, you're probably either a film student or a big fan of Philip Glass (who wrote the score)
- Most of the works of Stanley Kubrick
- 2001: A Space Odyssey is perhaps the most notable.
- Der Lauf der Dinge
- Life Is Beautiful in Italy
- Lincoln (2012) has been incorporated into junior high and senior high school history classes as a supplement for the American Civil War unit.
- Magnolia
- The Matrix (1999): Particularly for its philosophical influences (e.g. Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Buddhism).
- Meshes of the Afternoon
- Metropolis
- Mon Oncle
- Moonlight
- My Cousin Vinny: Often shown in law school due to it being one of the most accurate depictions of the legal profession in film, despite it being a comedy.
- La notte
- O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Usually as a complement to the book.
- That Obscure Object of Desire
- The Outsiders: Usually as a complement to the book.
- The Passenger (1975) is a less common film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni of Blow Up fame.
- The Patriot (2000) is most often shown in high school history classes as part of the American Revolution unit.
- Platoon
- Playtime
- Several of the earlier works of Quentin Tarantino for insight on indie filmmaking. These include:
- Rashomon, particularly the trope it popularized.
- Rebel Without a Cause
- Red Desert (1964), especially for its use of colours.
- Red Tails, another film often used in the World War II unit of history classes.
- The Rules of the Game
- It may be a bit cliché for high schools and universities to show Saving Private Ryan in history classes as a way to illustrate the D-Day invasion, though not always given its graphic nature.
- Schindler's List has been used in some high school history courses as a supplement for the World War II unit.
- The Searchers
- The Servant
- The Seventh Seal
- Show Me Love: Has been used by middle and high school teachers trying to teach their students about homophobia and tolerance of LGBT people.
- The original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) are often used in English high school classes as examples to illustrate The Hero's Journey or the Three-Act Structure.
- Super Size Me: Used as part of human biology courses at the high school and college levels, as well as in film courses to teach about documentary filmmaking.
- Fast Food Nation is often suggested as an alternative.
- There's Something About Mary has been used in film courses to serve as an introduction to the black comedy subgenre.
- Threads
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Usually as a complement to the book.
- Touch of Evil
- Triumph of the Will
- Vivre sa vie
- The Wave
- William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: For both its modern-day Setting Update and the fact that, in spite of such, it is one of the most faithful film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, especially in its dialogue. As a result, high school English teachers often use it to get kids interested in the material.
- The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Literature
It's extremely common for literary works to be taught in school.
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, often quite controversially due to people mistaking Mark Twain's point for its exact opposite. Perhaps for this reason, Twain includes a facetious foreword threatening readers who look for meaning in it. The novel has also been used to educate students on how to stand up against racism, given that it takes place before slavery in the United States was abolished.
- The Aeneid. Reading and translating it is a rite of passage for Latin students.
- All Quiet on the Western Front
- All Summer in a Day
- Amelia Bedelia: A popular selection for elementary summer reading lists
- An American Tragedy
- Anabasis for students of Ancient Greek
- The Analects of Confucius: Mainly for Chinese Language students in the Sinosphere.
- Animal Farm note
- Anna Karenina
- Anne of Green Gables, especially for Canadian students. Outside the country, it's even required reading and part of the curriculum for Japanese secondary school students, given the novel's popularity there.
- Arabian Nights
- Anything by Jane Austen, the most common being Pride and Prejudice
- The Art of Racing in the Rain
- The Awakening
- A Bag Of Marbles
- The Ballad of Mulan: At least in Hong Kong secondary schools, usually in Secondary 1note .
- Banaag at Sikat
- The Bell Jar
- Beowulf has mostly been used for teaching the concept of epics, as well as oral storytelling before writing systems were a thing.
- Berlin Alexanderplatz
- The Betrothed in Italy
- The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is common in the UK
- Brave New World
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Works by the Bronte sisters, such as
- The Brothers Karamazov
- Burmese Days
- The Butterfly Revolution
- Cannery Row
- The Canterbury Tales
- Casabianca
- Cat's Cradle
- Catch a Falling Star (1999)
- The Catcher in the Rye
- The Cay
- La Celestina in Spain.
- Anything by Charles Dickens
- The Clifford the Big Red Dog series
- Commentaries on the Gallic War
- Confessions (Saint Augustine)
- Crime and Punishment
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
- Cuore (1886)
- Daisy Miller
- Dear Mr. Henshaw is common in elementary schools.
- Dead Stars
- The Decameron in Italy
- Dekada '70
- Desiderata
- The Devil's Arithmetic
- The Diary of a Young Girl
- The Dispossessed
- The Divine Comedy
- The Diviners (1974) Either the Diviners or The Stone Angel are common studies in Canadian classrooms.
- Dom Casmurro
- Don Quixote, in schools across the Hispanic world.
- Doña Barbara, in Venezuela.
- Dracula is most often taught to secondary school students to serve as an introduction to the horror genre.
- Anything by Edgar Allan Poe
- Edward Thomas, in Britain
- Ender's Game
- Effi Briest, in Germany
- Also always there: The works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. The rest is rotating, but they are very, very hard to miss.
- Karel ende Elegast (in Flanders and the Netherlands)
- The Epic of Gilgamesh: As mentioned.
- Ethan Frome
- Eugene Onegin and many other works by Alexander Pushkin in Russian middle schools (equivalent to American high school)
- The Faerie Queene
- Fahrenheit 451
- A Farewell to Arms
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven
- Flowers for Algernon
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- The Forgotten Door
- Frankenstein
- The Gift of the Magi and, to a slightly lesser extent, other works by O. Henry (William Sidney Porter) such as "The Ransom of Red Chief," "A Retrieved Reformation," and "The Cop and the Anthem."
- The Giver
- Go Ask Alice
- "The God Stealer"
- Goodnight Mister Tom (in the UK)
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Great Expectations
- The Great Gatsby
- Gulliver's Travels
- The Handmaid's Tale
- Harrison Bergeron
- Hatchet
- Heart of Darkness
- The Help
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces
- Het recht van de sterkste (in Flanders)
- The Histories of Herodotus, for students of Ancient Greek.
- Holes
- Homer's epic poems,
- Horrible Histories
- "How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife"
- Anything by Victor Hugo in France, most notably:
- Les Misérables
- The Contemplations (poems)
- The Last Day of a Condemned Man as civic education about death penalty
- Invisible Man
- I Am a Cat in Japan, being one of the country's early modern novels.
- Johnny Tremain
- Julie of the Wolves
- The Jungle
- Anything by Franz Kafka
- The Kalevala
- Karakter
- Kindred
- The Kite Runner
- Life of Pi
- The Little Prince
- Looking for Alibrandi in Australian schools
- Lord of the Flies
- The Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien's Legendarium in general, increasingly popular in university lit. courses
- Lost Girls
- Lolita
- "The Lottery"
- The works of Lu Xun are widely taught in schools across China as he is considered a fundamental writer of modern Chinese literature. One of his storiesnote showed up as a passage in the reading comprehension part of the Chinese Diploma of Secondary Education examnote in Hong Kong in 2019.
- Maniac Magee
- Mariken Van Nieuwmeghen in Flanders and the Netherlands
- The Martian: Used to get kids interested in science and teach various scientific concepts. Its author Andy Weir later wrote a "Classroom Edition" that removed all the swear words so it could more easily be used in classrooms.
- Guy de Maupassant's short stories and novellas in France. Le Horla is practically mandatory in high school.
- The Master and Margarita
- Max Havelaar in the Netherlands
- "May Day Eve" (Nick Joaquin)
- Miriam
- Moby-Dick
- The Last of the Mohicans
- Montana 1948
- Anything by Toni Morrison, but particularly Beloved or Song of Solomon
- "The Most Dangerous Game"
- The Mouse and the Motorcycle
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
- Never Let Me Go
- Night
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Nostromo
- The Philippines has quite a few. The last two by famous national hero Jose Rizal (Noli and El Fili), are required reading for seventh through tenth grade, respectively:
- Number the Stars
- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
- Of Mice and Men
- The Old Man and the Sea: Ernest Hemingway's famously terse prose, the book's short length (only 127 pages and less than 27,000 words), and the amount of symbolism packed within have caused many English teachers to see it as a relatively accessible work of classic literature.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- On My Honor
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Oddly enough, author Ken Kesey objected to its use in classrooms because it wasn't "great literature" and guessed that teachers probably only used it because the sex and swearing could hold students' attention.
- The Other Side of Truth (2000)
- Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit in the U.K.
- Orientalism
- Oroonoko
- The Outsiders
- Parallel Lives
- Paradise Lost
- Peter Pan
- The Pete the Cat series
- The Plague (1947)
- The Poisonwood Bible
- The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- A Prayer for Owen Meany
- Quincas Borba
- F. Sionil José's Rosales Saga
- The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
- Alexander Pushkin's works (Eugene Onegin, Dubrovsky, The Captain's Daughter, Boris Godunov)
- Rabbit-Proof Fence, Usually followed the film.
- Ayn Rand's works: Chiefly popular in schools in conservative areas of the US, due to her fervently anti-communist politics.
- We the Living, due to it being her most autobiographical work and based explicitly on the real-life USSR.
- Anthem is also used, as its sci-fi dystopia is more allegorical than her later novels.
- The Red Badge of Courage
- The Red Pony
- Reynard the Fox In Flanders and the Netherlands
- "Rip Van Winkle"
- Anything by Robert Frost
- Robinson Crusoe
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men are staples of philosophy lessons in France and political theory courses around the world.
- The Scarlet Letter
- Season of Migration to the North: For Arabic language classes (both in Arabic-speaking countries and for foreign students) and also in translation for African- and postcolonial literature courses/units. The former because of its relatively straightforward language and structure (no funky stream of consciousness or overly poetic imagery) combined with depth of theme, the latter basically because of the themes.
- The Secret Garden
- The Secret Life of Bees
- A Separate Peace
- Seven Brothers in Finland
- The Shahnameh in Iran
- The Sienkiewicz Trilogy in Poland
- Slaughterhouse-Five
- Stone Fox
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- The Stranger
- The Sun Also Rises
- Super Minds is an English textbook series targeted at elementary students and is common in ESL classes outside of English-speaking countries.
- Suspicion (Germany)
- The Tale of Genji: In Japan, studying this is a standard part of the high school curriculum. A few anime have shown high school students wrestling with it.
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Tangerine is common in middle schools.
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles
- That Was Then... This Is Now
- Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Things Fall Apart
- The Things They Carried
- To Build a Fire
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Pledge, especially in German-speaking countries.
- The Unknown Soldier in Finland
- "The Yellow Wallpaper"
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Walewein in Flanders and the Netherlands
- War and Peace
- Without Seeing The Dawn
- The Woman Warrior
- The Satyricon, if your Latin Professor is feeling adventurous.
- The works of pre-modernist author Lima Barreto are often used in Brazilian schools in Portuguese and/or History classes to teach about life and racial inequality in 20th century Brazil. His classic book Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma ("The sad end of Policarpo Quaresma") is the most common one taught in schools.
- Voltaire's works in France, most notably Candide and Zadig, as part of teachings on The Enlightenment.
- In Hong Kong, the works and philosophy of Zhuangzi is studied as part of the senior secondary school curriculum in preparation for the HKDSE public exams. More specifically, it's a section of "Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease".
- Émile Zola's works in France, usually in high school.
Live-Action TV
- Bill Nye the Science Guy is most often used in science classes at all grade levels for teaching specific scientific concepts.
- NUMB3RS
- The Prisoner (1967)
- Reading Rainbow for reading/English language classes.
- Roots (1977) in history classes discussing Antebellum America.
- The Twilight Zone (1959) is particularly popular among high school English teachers.
- Twin Peaks
- The Wire
Other
- Tour the States is often used in social studies classes to teach about the 50 US states and their capitals.
- UNIX-like systems, including Linux, are widely studied in computer science classes, particularly those on operating system design.
Theatre
- Amadeus
- Art in France, to discuss the perception of modern art
- Blue Remembered Hills
- Blood Brothers
- Various plays by Anton Chekhov (his short stories as well)
- Pierre Corneille in France, most notably The Cid and his Oedipus.
- The Crucible is used in English classes to teach about McCarthyism.
- The Curious Savage
- Cyrano de Bergerac in France
- Death of a Salesman
- A Doll's House
- Equus
- Faust: First Part of the Tragedy
- The Field in Ireland
- The Good Person of Szechwan
- The Glass Menagerie
- Hamilton is used in some US History classes to teach about the Revolution, with additional clarification on its Artistic License – History
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Inherit the Wind
- An Inspector Calls
- A Man for All Seasons
- Anything by Molière in France
- Oedipus the King
- Antigone
- Classical Civilisation students and Classics students (different subjects Explanation) will study a variety of plays from this time. Playwrights such as Euripides, Aeschylus and Aristophanes are the more popular ones.
- Oleanna (depending on how deranged your high school drama teacher is)
- Our Town
- Various plays by Alexander Pushkin, particularly Boris Godunov and The Little Tragedies.
- Jean Racine in France, most notably Phèdre (Phaedra) and Bérénice.
- A Raisin in the Sun
- The Revenger's Tragedy
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
- Many a William Shakespeare play, usually in written (Literature) or televised form (Films), such as:
- The Slab Boys
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in Australia
- Thunder on Sycamore Street
- Trifles
- Waiting for Godot
- Woe from Wit
Video Games
- Edutainment games would be far too numerous to list, but there are a few notable ones that do make the list:
- Crosscountry, the precursor to games such as Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck Simulator, is also a popular geography-teaching tool. Crosscountry USA is often used in Canadian schools to teach students the fifty U.S. states and American geography. In fact, this was the Canadian schoolkid's equivalent to The Oregon Trail. Its original Canadian counterpart Crosscountry Canada has also been used for teaching the Canadian provinces and geography.
- The Oregon Trail was originally developed and was often played in schools as a way to teach Westward expansion. Outside the classroom, it ended up becoming one of the most influential games of all time, partly because it was one of the first simulation and strategy games.
- Prodigy Math Game is a role-playing game that makes use of skill-building questions to progress.
- Thikrolls has been used to teach physics concepts such as gravity and acceleration.
- One can't go without mentioning Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, as it has often been used to teach geography and world history, as well as enhancing mystery-solving skills as the player tries to capture the elusive titular character.
- BioShock has been used to showcase the detriments of unrestrained capitalism, i.e. Ayn Rand's own ideology on capitalism and the individual.
- Civilization is popular in social studies classes, being used to teach history, culture, and strategic thinking by means of city-building and government management.
- During the 2000s and 2010s, it was not uncommon for physical education teachers to have students play DanceDanceRevolution, given its unique concept of stepping on arrows in time to music.
- The Last of Us has been implemented in several textbooks for game narrative design and is making its way into writing classes.
- Metal Gear Solid and especially its sequel are popular in college curricula as examples of postmodern storytelling.
- Minecraft is said to be multipurpose, and some teachers have seen the benefit of using its dedicated Education Edition to create customized lessons for science, math, and history. Some computer science classes have used it to teach game design and programming.
- The Entertainment Software Ratings Board has confirmed in a 2020 blog post that role-playing games targeted towards younger audiences, particularly Pokémon, have been used to help kids practice reading, comprehending, and understanding story structure, as it is a core part of progressing through these types of games.
- Portal is a favorite among high school physics teachers, primarily to teach various physics concepts.
- The Sims is frequently used to examine what-if scenarios. Its Teen ESRB rating makes it perfect for teaching young students about family dynamics and the real world, and how to overcome the challenges of family planning and raising children.
- It's not uncommon to see Team Fortress 2 come up in lessons about video game character design.
- Given how big the Japanese video game industry is, it's not surprising that some video game songs ended up getting written into music textbooks or curricula of schools. The love themes from Mother 3 and Final Fantasy IV are a few examples of this.
Web Animation
- OverSimplified: Some comments on the videos have said that the videos are shown in their classes.
Web Videos
- The Angry Video Game Nerd has been employed in some college game development courses as an educational aid for students and aspiring developers on what not to do when creating a game.
- AsapSCIENCE has become a staple in middle and high school science classrooms. Especially popular is their Periodic Table Song.
- Epic Rap Battles of History: The catchy beats and memorable lyrics make it easy for students to memorize historical facts from these videos, even facts that are normally quite obscure.
- Mr. Plinkett Reviews: The reviews of the Star Wars prequel trilogy are shown in film schools to teach students screenwriting.
Western Animation
- The songs "Yakko's World" and "Yakko's America" from Animaniacs have been used to teach geography of the world and the United States, respectively.
- The Bluey episode "Curry Quest" has been shown by some English teachers to teach The Hero's Journey format for storytelling.
- As part of drug education programs like D.A.R.E., many people who attended elementary school in the '90s were shown Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
- Disney:
- In the late 1960's, six classic shorts were packaged into a series of educational reels for language arts and primary guidance courses. They were Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, Elmer Elephant, Little Hiawatha, The Ugly Duckling and Trick Or Treat.
- In the 1970's, Disney produced the What Should I Do? series, had a formula of a group of kids getting into an argument over something and exploring their thoughts, opinions and potential choices regarding on the matter. The films were open-ended so the discussion could continue in the classroom.
- Liberty's Kids is sometimes used to introduce American kids to the The American Revolution and the events preceding and succeeding it.
- It's very common for various Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts to be shown in music classes to explain various aspects of classical music.
- The Magic School Bus is often used to educate primary school students about various concepts in science.
- Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat has seen some use in elementary schools for teaching Chinese history.
- Schoolhouse Rock!: Made explicitly for this purpose in order to teach kids various concepts in the form of easily memorized song lyrics.
- Many SpongeBob SquarePants episodes are used in classrooms to illustrate specific academic and social concepts:
- "Pizza Delivery" is frequently used in geography and social studies classes to teach basic navigation and survival skills, such as using natural landmarks like moss to find civilization.
- "Feral Friends" is often shown in biology or marine science units to help students compare the characters to the anatomy and behaviors of their real-life animal counterparts.
- The series is the industry standard for introductory genetics lessons, with worksheets using Punnett Squares to determine the traits of SpongeBob and Patrick's offspring being common in junior high school science.
- "Oral Report" is a frequent resource for guidance counselors and speech teachers to help students navigate performance anxiety and public speaking fears.
- "Artist Unknown" is used in art classes to spark discussions on the definition of high art versus talent, as well as the technical perfection of the Renaissance style.
- "Band Geeks" is a staple in music education to demonstrate the importance of ensemble teamwork and the process of preparing for a high-stakes performance.
- "Squid Noir" is used by English and film teachers to introduce the tropes and visual aesthetics of the film noir genre to younger audiences.
- The song "Tubby the Tuba" and its eponymous film have been used by music teachers at all grade levels to help students understand the principles of music and instruments, as well as their relationship in a symphony orchestra.