SPRINGFIELD – As the “The Simpsons” celebrated their 25^th anniversary Wednesday, college professors around the country were highlighting how the cartoon has become ingrained in higher education.

Hofstra University adjunct English instructor Richard Pioreck told the Associated Press that he’s looked to “The Simpsons” for years to help him connect with students and engage them in important literature parodied on the show.

Pioreck teaches a Broadway theater class titled “The D’oh of Homer” that focuses on works like Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” that have been featured by “The Simpsons” over the years.

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He’s also teaching a class that examines how the show has incorporated Broadway musicals and plays, according to the news service.

“If the references are important enough to be lampooned by ‘The Simpsons,’ these works must be important cultural milestones,” Pioreck told the AP.

New York’s Oswego State University and San Jose State University also offer Simpsons-inspired courses. Denise DuVernay – an English professor at Xavier University and author of “The Simpsons in the Classroom: Embiggening the Learning Experience with the Wisdom of Springfield” – thinks that’s great.

“Teachers need to keep things fresh,” she told the AP. “They need to reach students however they can. And using ‘The Simpsons’ to grab their attention, I think, is brilliant.

“Fighting against pop culture isn’t going to do anyone any good,” DuVernay said.

“The Simpsons” producer Al Jean said it’s an intelligent show, so it makes sense that professors would incorporate the material.

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“Some people may think we are very vulgar, but then they find there is a lot of warmth and emotion and many people are surprised at the intelligence of some of the jokes,” he told the AP.

Pioreck said there are messages about relationships and life that come through when the show skewers important literary works.

“The Simpsons do a great deal of parodying, whether it’s a complete script or a number here or there,” Pioreck said. “Quite often they choose family relationships; what makes a man a success is one of the things that we pursue.”

In the episode “A Streetcar Named Marge,” a parody of “A Streetcar Named Desire” about Marge and Homer’s relationship, “you can see what happens to Homer. Even though it looks like he’s not a good father, he steps up and he comes through in the end,” Pioreck told the AP.

Miserable old Mr. Burns, who owns Springfield’s nuclear power plant on “The Simpsons,” is also a lot like Charles Foster Kane in the 1941 Orson Welles classic “Citizen Kane,” Jean told the AP.

“Mr. Burns … he doesn’t have fulfilment in his life even though he’s the richest person in town,” Pioreck observed.

Burns, and his sychophantic aide, Waylon Smithers, provide the contrast to Homer’s humble family for a lesson on life that’s central to many literary works.

“Here you have two people who have it all, they have more money than they know what to do with and yet they’re not happy,” Pioreck said. “Homer has no money, but has friends and family.”