I'm posting this on a few VIP boards, but I'm keeping it to just a few so as not to push our broadband access over the edge. But I figure my $10 donation gets me a few repeat postings, right?

Congratulations on the Best Show award! I never had a doubt.

I'm a high school English teacher, and every week of a new episode I show LOST in my classes. I started last spring. That story is told in almost excrutiating detail in my post under "Introductions." I won't repeat it here out of consideraton for your busy schedule, but it's over there on that thread if you'd like to hear about how I got LOST in school.

I use LOST in my class to show visual, uses of literary elements in our contemporary culture, and to discuss cultural references. A few of my students have also organized an after-school LOST activity club. That works great--gives about 2 dozen students who might not otherwise intermingle a chance to learn about each other. Privately, I regard that as a real-life reflection of one of the show's themes--community interaction.

As a result of showing this in my classroom, and word-of-mouth, you probably have about 300 new adolescent LOST fans from the past year or so. Apparently, among most of them, the season 1 DVD has become Christmas Present Request #1.

So that's it--aside from enjoying the show as entertainment...well, let's be frank, I'm addicted--I thought you and the others behind this masterpiece would like to know that at least in one part of the world, LOST has made it into the classroom as an exemplar of literature in modern culture. And to say thanks for staunching the bleeding of contemporary culture.

It makes learning about literature from dead white guy books much more palatable for students.

Wow.

I only have two words in response to this --

Rock. On.

Thank you SO much for looking at the show so deeply... I can only imagine what it would be like to be a fly on the wall for one of your post-show discussions.

This is very, very cool and I just want to personally reach out and say THANKS.

Yours,

Damon

Nomad:

A quick update for you on this: LOST has become the number one attraction for students in my class now. None of them EVER complains about having to do analytical work in class about the characters and the motivations--in fact, today several students in one of my classes got into a disagreement over Jack's motivation for hitting that "execute" key. All of the readings into Jack's character seemed to me to be very thoughtful, insightful, and well-considered. Which of course means they are thinking about these characters during the rest of their busy adolescent lives.

Further, the students are making connections between the characters on LOST and the characters in the books we are reading. One of the things that has come up is how much they think Shannon is like Daisy in The Great Gatsby--selfish, lacking compassion, but probably misunderstood and much deeper. You cannot imagine how gratifying it is for a teacher to hear his students making cross-material connections like this! It's one of the hardest skills for them to master, but they are doing it with less effort and more accuracy than I personally have ever experienced.

Finally, the LOST club now has 60 members! That includes three teachers who go to the Thursday meetings just to hear what the kids have to say about the show.

Damon, in your reply to me you said thanks. You're welcome, but I also owe you and the other creators surrounding the show (including all the fine actors). The only reason I can use LOST in English 11 is because all of you do such a great job keeping the characters honest, authentic, and believable. None of my students has any trouble whatsoever responding to the very challenging assignments I give them relating to the characters on the show. I credit the consistency and depth you all have written into those characters, and the textures the actors bring to their roles.

LOST isn't just a great show. It's great literature. So, thank you as well.