And on a more groovy note, stuff like this very simply makes what we do more exciting and dare I say enjoyable…I really can’t think of any other way to promote the notion of an intrinsic value of education than to surprise and mix things up like this. I don’t know who said it first, but leaving aside everything else, education is valuable because smart, well-informed people get more jokes.

Think of the short Simpson’s clip I might use in my govt class as the rich and gooey chocolate fudge sauce drizzled over the vanilla lesson on the two party system. “Aliens Run for President” suddenly makes hilarious sense beyond the great visuals of a naked Bill Clinton and Bob Dole and their replicons Kang and Kodos holding hands as they campaign for president in Springfield. The students laugh like they’re suddenly part of the inside joke, as if they’re finally gaining access to some exclusive club. Not a bad outcome. And not a bad way to end a lesson.

This is like when us math teachers tell kids, “you know, you’ll use [concept x] all the time in engineering or architecture or … ” without realizing that we’re trying to thrill them about their future jobs.

I showed my lunchtime crowd some motion graphics this one day, special effect-type stuff, and a kid who dropped my class at the start of the year said, “I would’ve stuck with Geometry if it was about this. No one cares about Geometry but Meyer.”

And I’m thinking to myself, I’m blowing it, ’cause without Geometry none of that fun special effect stuff is possible. I’ve gotta show ’em more often that this stuff is good for more than just their future 9-to-5.

Personification is a technique used to communicate. Writing and words are used to get our message across. I think sometimes students see English class writing as irrelevant and it doesn’t apply outside of class. Using personification is just something we do for our teachers or just something we have to search for in the books we read.

This commercial shows them that there is a real purpose, a real use for these techniques they learn in school. Meaningful discussions about how personification works in various media can be powerful and lead to the bigger picture of “What technique is most appropriate in helping me to create the effect I want in my audience?”

And my colleagues and I have been discussing the fact that our students (fifth graders) don’t always remember, or think about, the fact that SOMEBODY had to write those commercials and the episodes of SpongeBob before they even began to film.

I’ve already put the commercial on my iPod, ready to use next year. Thanks, Dan!