Seven seasons? How has it survived so long, I ask myself, as I flip through the channels or surf the net and am bombarded with images and sound bites of a truly questionable piece of pop culture: American Idol.

Of course, I know I among the few who have not been bewitched by the siren call (er, screech) of this twisted and high jinks version of Star Search. And neither was my colleague, Kevin, who joined our fair organization late last year after an illustrious career as a middle school teacher.

Being only a few doors down from me, Kevin was among the first people I approached when I set out to write “School Transitions Made Easy,” a piece in this month’s American School Board Journal that examines the challenges students experience when they move from elementary to middle and middle to high school and how schools can help them.

I was curious to know how and what Kevin, as someone who actually worked in the trenches, did to help his students navigate an especially tough transition. He had many strategies, but one of them struck me as funny because it involved our beloved American Idol.

“In the first season of American Idol, I thought it was a glorified karaoke party on national TV and refused, loudly, to watch it,” he says. “After the second or third installment of the show, I realized that every student I taught had some knowledge about what happened the night before on A.I.—even the kids who said they didn’t watch it.”

So, that night, reluctantly, he tuned in. The next day at school, Kevin commiserated about the show’s events with a few students he saw in the hallway. Before he knew it, a cluster of kids had formed around him, all chirping away about who their favorite singer was.

The banter soon became part of Kevin’s warm-up activity in class and he would set the timer for two minutes to discuss what happened on A.I., before moving on to the lesson of the day.

“Some administrators or school leaders would say this is a huge waste time, but the buy-in factor was powerful,” Kevin says. “I could show the kids that I wasn’t some robotic teacher without a personality and I was able to give them something they really wanted—the chance to offer their opinion.”

Ok, so I take it back. American Idol does have some merit … but it took a good teacher to find it.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor