The Simpsons vs. Shakespeare
How unpopular this morning must the son/daughter of Joseph Reynolds be - the parent who has led a 400 strong petition against his child's Somerset secondary school asking the Government to block the teaching of The Simpsons in class? Maybe not as much as Billy Casper (Kes) or Oskar (Let the Right One In), but she will at least be on the Peter Parker scale of undesirables around the canteen. Nobody gets to be cool like Charlie Bartlett because their daddy led a crusade in an attempt to block you and your classmates from seeing Bart & Homer in class. 
Reynolds, a marine engineer branded the programme the 'Turkey Twizzler';
"I don't think it's strong enough content. The national curriculum actually lists a great number of authors we could use and The Simpsons is never listed... If you want to use The Simpsons once in a while as a hook to get kids interested in A Midsummer Night's Dream or get them interested in some other stronger content, I think that's great. There's a big difference between that and actually teaching The Simpsons for six weeks and I think it's a waste of the kids' time."The Daily Mail actually has a picture of Reynolds;
and further quotes; I'm not some moral crusader against The Simpsons. I find it witty and clever and watch it at home. But it's a TV sitcom and it doesn't belong in the classroom. 'I do think we should raise the level a little for our children. Children should be studying text of the highest quality and I don't believe this fits the bill.' Mr Reynolds wife, Denise, 39, said: 'Someone said to my husband that Homer was the modern day Hamlet but how can these kids make a connection like that if they are not learning about Shakespeare?'The class was being taught to 12-13 year olds as part of a "broad, balanced and diverse" curriculum according to�Andy Dunnett, the school's assistant head teacher. He said:
"Students are encouraged to look at the text in a critical way. Initially it's about building up their skills as critical thinkers.They also learn about different aspects of the media; audience, visual narrative, presentation and stereotypes, and some quite high level thinking ideas like satire, irony and parody. Far from dumbing down... we believe we are giving students a really vital and important part of their general education.Mr Dunnett added:
"Our students get a very wide diet including three Shakespeare plays over five years at Kingsmead. We would be doing our students a disservice if we didn't give them the opportunity to learn about the way media products are made and the way they affect the world around them."