Photo used under a Creative Commons license with Leo-setä.

Jay Mathews, a staff writer who covers education for the Washington Post, took the time “to discard any pretense of research and instead vent on a subject too insubstantial for a serious education writer”: why those kids on Glee aren’t ever shown on screen studying. Let’s all facepalm together!

Still, I have a problem with “Glee.” Have you ever seen any of those amazingly talented characters on that show doing their homework? Or discussing an upcoming exam? Or opening a textbook? The glee club adviser, played by Matthew Morrison, is supposed to be a Spanish teacher, but I haven’t seen him ask anybody to conjugate a single verb.

Inspiring! Following Mathews’ lead, I’m going to start working on posts about how those kids on Saved by the Bell spent way too much time at “The Max,” why Johnny Depp wasn’t ever shown dissecting a frog while working undercover at a high school on 21 Jump Street and, of course, unraveling the unending mystery of how in the hell that one high-end Manhattan lounge stays in business despite the fact they constantly allow the underaged kids of Gossip Girl to drink there all the time. That last one will take some real muckraking.

Seriously though, Mathews’ argument that television shows, as cultural documents, play a part in shaping the way that young people think about education has some weight. I just have a hard time believing that a show which asks us to believe that a bunch of students can suddenly sing more cohesively than most Broadway musical casts is the best example to cite when making that argument. Besides, who’s got time for social studies when you can sing Madonna songs all day?