Springfield Elementary School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the fictitious Springfield Elementary School in the television program "The Simpsons." There may also be other Springfield Elementary Schools.

In the television series The Simpsons, Springfield Elementary School is the name of the school that Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson and their fellow students attend.

Horribly underfunded and suffering from the incompetence of its administration, teachers and staff, Springfield Elementary is a satirical comment on the state of publicly funded schools and education in the United States. As an illustrative example and parody of the lengths to which some schools are willing to go in an attempt to overcome underfunding, some Springfield Elementary School students (specifically Cletus and Brandine's children) are purposely excluded from state or federal standardized testing regimes. The impetus being the maintenance of artificial school-wide averages and therefore basic levels of government support—a practice not unheard of in the United States and other systems where funding is tied to test results.

The school's design and represented floorplan is reportedly identical to Ainsworth Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, the school attended by Matt Groening as a child.

Established in episodes Separate Vocations and Pokey Mom, the school's mascot is a puma. Notably revealed in the episode Lisa Gets an 'A', Springfield Elementary was at one time voted "The Most Dilapidated School in Missouri"—it was then moved, brick-by-brick, to Springfield. It has been stated many times that the school is filled with asbestos. Underfunding of the school has resulted in a variety of troubling scenarios for students and staff. Sub-standard facilities abound, including a cinder block having replaced the school's tether ball, cafeteria food made from circus animals, shredded newspaper, and old gym mats (only the teachers eat french fries made from potatoes), among others.

The school's address is 16 Plympton Street.

[edit] Administration and Administrative Staff

[edit] Principal W. Seymour Skinner

Main article: Seymour Skinner

[edit] Superintendent Chalmers

Main article: Superintendent Chalmers

[edit] Leopold

Voiced by Dan Castellaneta, Leopold was Superintendent Chalmers' assistant. He was a surly, snarling one-trick pony; when Principal Skinner had to be temporarily replaced, Leopold stomped in, issued vague threats, and terrified the children, making them think he was the replacement, and then suddenly and politely introduced the actual substitute, Ned Flanders. The children then collectively sighed with relief. The gag was repeated when Marge Simpson became a substitute teacher in the episode The PTA Disbands.

[edit] Teachers/Faculty

[edit] Edna Krabappel

Main article: Edna Krabappel

[edit] Elizabeth Hoover

Miss Hoover

Elizabeth Hoover is voiced by Maggie Roswell and Marcia Mitzman Gaven while Roswell was involved in a pay dispute. Miss Hoover has been worn down by her years in the public school system, and is not against drinking significant quantities of alcohol. She is very apathetic and bored with her job, and seems overwhelmed with stress, seeking whatever remedies she can to alleviate it. She is often seen smoking even while teaching, once even under a "No Smoking" sign in the assembly hall. Her desperate attempts to regain her stability include rushing out of class to recite "Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean" with her eyes closed, and even, on two occasions, getting into her car and driving off.

She is in particular weary of dealing with Lisa's unbridled enthusiasm (though initially she seemed proud of Lisa) and Ralph's mishaps and inanities. A typical response to one of his difficulties is, "The children are right to laugh at you, Ralph." She was replaced by a substitute teacher, Mr. Bergstrom, (voiced by Dustin Hoffman, under the pseudonym Sam Etic) when she thought she had Lyme disease. It turned out that her condition was psychosomatic, which the children thought that meant that she was both "faking it" and "crazy." At the beginning of the series, her hair was blue.

[edit] Dewey Largo

Mr. Largo

Voiced by Harry Shearer, Dewey Largo, often mistakenly called "Prof. Ludwig", is the music teacher, whom Lisa credited with proving that any piece of music could have the soul sucked out of it. He is very uncreative and is a poor conductor.

He has not played a large role in the series, but was originally intended to be an uptight foil for Lisa, and her non-conformist ways. In one episode, however, in which Lisa first meets Bleeding Gums Murphy, he criticizes Lisa's creative freedom with the piece he is conducting, and blatantly hopes that the class won't suffer from her creativity. After the first few seasons, Mr. Largo was rarely seen and only appeared in approximately one episode per season. However he has since resurfaced as a recurring character in the seventeenth season, making appearances in several episodes. His backwards push was noted in Homer to the Max. When Lisa notes that some TV shows push characters into the background, Mr. Largo walks by the window.

In the 17th season episode My Fair Laddy, after Willie left Springfield Elementary, the groundskeeping work was passed on to the next lowest person employed at the school, which turned out to be Dewey. In See Homer Run, it was "visually suggested" that Waylon Smithers was caught in an act of impropriety (of a homosexual nature) with Dewey Largo and then verbally attempted to cover it up afterwards. Also in the 17th season in the episode Homer's Paternity Coot it is revealed that Largo was accepted to the Juilliard School, but never got the letter as it was frozen atop Mount Springfield. He ended up at Springfield Elementary instead.

Mr. Largo's voice, meanwhile, is very similar to those of both Ned Flanders and Herman's. This was likely intentional, as all characters have somewhat similar personalities.

His last name is also an Italian word for a slow, broad musical tempo, a possible reference to the fact that he can make any piece of music uninteresting.

[edit] Brunella Pommelhorst

Brunella Pommelhorst

The school gym teacher, voiced by Tress MacNeille. First appeared in Lisa on Ice, although her name isn't mentioned until The PTA Disbands (Her full name is also printed in The Simpsons One Step Beyond Forever!: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family ...Continued Yet Again). Mrs. Pommelhorst is seen sometimes in crowd shots, but rarely speaks. She has blond hair and usually wears a whistle and takes a tough-as-nails approach to teaching. In Little Girl in the Big Ten, she decides that because of the oath she took on Xena, she has to fail Lisa but decides to let her make it up by taking private lessons. In a more recent episode, My Fair Laddy, she decides to go leave for the year and return the next semester as "Mr. Pommelhorst, the new shop teacher." Her name is very likely derived from a fixture in gymnasiums, the Pommel horse.

[edit] Audrey McConnell

Third grade teacher, introduced in Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade. She has complete faith in the buddy system and when that fails, she has nothing to believe in.

[edit] Mrs. Cummerdale

Gym teacher.

[edit] Mrs. Holmes-Indigo

Science teacher.

[edit] Coach Krupt

Coach Krupt, voiced by Hank Azaria, is a gym teacher who is obsessed with the game Bombardment, where he just hits students with balls relentlessly. He also plays this game with bread rolls in restaurants. He is the substitute teacher for Ms. Pommelhorst who is taking the leave of absence, because she will become a man by operation. Krupt has a wife and two children, a boy and a girl. Coach Krupt was seen in the episode My Fair Laddy.

[edit] Mr. Kupferberg

The French teacher who can't speak French, voiced by Hank Azaria.

Lisa: J'accuse, Monsieur Kupferberg!
Mr. Kupferberg: (in a Brooklyn accent) What is she yakkin' about?

[edit] Mr. Glasscock

Former teacher who transferred to Springfield Elementary when promised the students would no longer make fun of his name, but left when all the teacher's edition textbooks were stolen.

[edit] Itinerant Teachers/Faculty

[edit] Dr. J. Loren Pryor

School psychiatrist.

[edit] Mr. Bergstrom

Substitute teacher while Miss Hoover was away with psychosomatic lyme disease. Lisa had a crush on him.

[edit] School Staff

[edit] Groundskeeper Willie

Main article: Groundskeeper Willie

[edit] Otto Mann

Main article: Otto Mann

Otto Mann is the bus driver of Springfield Elementary. His apparent sole pastime is playing the guitar, which, according to him, "all [he] did when [he] was growing up." His catch-phrase is "Alright!" and he is much endeared by students of Springfield Elementary, especially Bart.

[edit] Lunchlady Doris

Main article: Lunchlady Doris

[edit] Myra

Principal Skinner's secretary.

[edit] Groundskeeper Seamus

Irish groundskeeper and Willie's worst enemy.

[edit] Gravedigger Billy

Willie's cousin.

[edit] Coach Fortner

Alcoholic sports coach.

[edit] Students

Main article: Springfield Elementary School Students

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Naming of South Carolina school

In 1994, the naming of a new elementary school in Greenwood, S.C., was left up to the students and Springfield Elementary School won. The school board was unaware of the connection to The Simpsons until a protest by one group of parents. The name stood. (http://www.snpp.com/other/articles/briefhistory.html)