Shameless Netflix plug

I knew that Netflix would be a good resource for us as a family of homeschoolers, but what has surprised me is how our subscription has benefited us in some unexpected ways.

My parents gave us a gift subscription to Netflix a little over a year ago, for Christmas 2010. At the time, we'd been streaming the video series "Becoming Human" over the NOVA web site as part of a unit on human evolution, and my mind was filled with the potential for documentary films that could supplement our studies in other areas as well.

We've taken advantage of the huge video library Netflix has amassed for a number of subjects, borrowing "The Power of Song" on DVD for a muscian study of Pete Seeger, streaming video on different periods of history we've been studying, and watching PBS Home Video on the solar system as part of Oldest Daughter's research project on the solar system. It's even been a gateway for discovering culture, as the girls have seen classic movies, encountered famous playwrights through film adaptations of their work, and on and on.

But Netflix has another advantage, one that if management is smart, it will start actively promoting to homeschoolers: It allows you to stream some quality TV shows. In the midst of some shows that are simply great fun, like the "Dr. Who" revival; and other shows that we could all live happily without ever seeing, like "24" and "Wizards of Waverly Place," the Netflix video library includes some TV shows that are an English teacher's dream.

These are the shows that were written during the golden age of television, by writers who had grown up not watching TV, but filling in radio plays with their imagination, reading books, and sometimes attending theatrical productions. Every now and then, you'll catch a revival of their work, when an enterprising studio head acquires the right to reuse the title and concept of a show; and, if you look hard enough, you can find their actual shows broadcast at some obscure hour of the night.

These are shows like "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone."

We haven't watch "The Outer Limits" yet, but some time last year I decided to capture Oldest Daughter's imagination with an episode or two of Rod Serling's magnum opus. As expected, the show was a hit. To my delight, it proved to be a great springboard for discussion of literary techniques and styles.

As we've watched episodes together, I've paused them midway to introduce concepts of protagonist, and encouraged Oldest Daughter to identify not only the protagonist of the episode, but whether the struggle at the heart of the story was internal or external, or even an externalized internal conflict. From there she's learned to identify the climax of the story, and the denouement; and many times, even to predict how the plot will play out once the climax has been reached, and to explain how she knew it would go that way, complete with arguments from the story so far.

She's learned to identify literary motifs like deals with the Devil, the genie's wishes, cheating fate, and she's developed a keen sense of appreciating irony.

On one occasion, an episode of "The Twilight Zone" led her to write a killer essay critiquing a story and suggesting an alternate way the story could have gone that respected not only her own sensibilities, but also the integrity of the episode's characters and the general spirit of "The Twilight Zone."

The show has even been a gateway into an impromptu history lesson. "Dad," she once asked me, "why are there so many episodes about nuclear war?" One time she asked me about the network censorship that made direct treatments of such topics verboten; and on another, she expressed curiosity about the levels of paranoia shown among the characters. "Let's talk about the 1950s," I told her.

Watching these episodes together has been more than just a chance to enjoy high-quality televised dramas together. They have generated better discussions and writing assignments than I ever remember getting back in middle school or even high school, discussions and assignments that are driven largely by things that interest her.

So, it's been nearly 53 years since the show first aired, but I'm finding it's as strong now as it was then. A TV show that unsettles, haunts and educates. This could only be possible in the Twilight Zone.

But it's Netflix that got us there.