# Did 'The SImpsons' Accurately Portray STEM Education and the Gig Economy?

**URL:** <https://onehack.st/t/did-the-simpsons-accurately-portray-stem-education-and-the-gig-economy/71035>\
**Category:** News & Articles\
**Tags:** learning, news\
**Created:** [February 23, 2020, 11:45am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/did-the-simpsons-accurately-portray-stem-education-and-the-gig-economy/71035 "2020-02-23T11:45:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Aina](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/aina/32/167469_2.png) [@Aina](https://onehack.st/u/Aina)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 11:45am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/did-the-simpsons-accurately-portray-stem-education-and-the-gig-economy/71035/1 "2020-02-23T11:45:47Z")

</div>

![hiqd9tn35eb5nultfnv6](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/9/7/972a780acf0ed12af6b44ed4652654b49ce11cd5.jpeg)

Long-time Slashdot reader [theodp](https://entertainment.slashdot.org/~theodp) writes: _On Sunday, The Simpsons aired [The Miseducation Of Lisa Simpson](https://tv.avclub.com/a-bewilderingly-atonal-simpsons-ditches-the-deep-for-th-1841735235), an episode in which Marge — with the help of a song from John Legend (“STEM, it’s not just for dorks, dweebs and nerds / It’ll turn all your dumb kids to Zuckerbergs”) — convinces Springfield to use a windfall the town reaped by seizing shipwreck treasure to build the Springfield STEM Academy to “prepare kids for the jobs of tomorrow.”_

 

_All goes well initially — both Lisa and Bart love their new school — until Lisa realizes there’s a two-tiered curriculum. While children classified as “divergent pathway assimilators” (i.e., gifted) like Lisa study neural networks and C+++ upstairs, kids like Bart are relegated to the basement where they’re [prepared via VR and gamified learning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca-pSx4WpbQ) for a life of menial, gig economy side-hustles — charging e-scooters, shopping for rich people’s produce, driving ride-share._  
The school’s administrator was even played by _Silicon Valley_ actor Zach Woods, who delivered one of the episode’s harshest lines, [notes _The A.V. Club_](https://tv.avclub.com/a-bewilderingly-atonal-simpsons-ditches-the-deep-for-th-1841735235).

“Staging a Norma Rae-style revolt at how the ‘non-gifted’ students are being trained to do everyone else’s dirty work, Lisa’s brought up short with a startled ‘Eep’ by Woods’ administrator asking, ‘Isn’t that the point of a gifted class?’”