Scooby-Doo incorporated in Adolescent Literature course

“It's a fun and interesting cultural touchstone,” said Doherty about Scooby-Doo. “Adolescent Lit is a lot about asking, ‘How do we use literature to teach young people how to be a good citizen?’ and topics like that.”

The idea occurred to Doherty over the summer while he and his wife, Dr. Kim Cox, were watching the new Nancy Drew show.

“We’re always thinking about teaching since we both do it for a living. It tends to creep into every day conversation. We were talking about how there’s so much interest in reviving older stories from the 50s and 60s,” Doherty said. “The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew have a specific idea of an adolescent as a person who has agency, but also acknowledges their vulnerability. They want to highlight certain characteristics and encourage ideas of like civic virtue. ‘You do this because it’s right,’ and principles like that which is great.”

Veronica Mars, an older show, is another example of this narrative, according to Doherty. She was a high school student who started working with her father on his private detective cases, a theme replicated in Scooby-Doo.

Doherty plans to have his students watch Scooby-Doo in the first unit of the course.

“It’s a nice opening because it’s pretty low stakes and accessible for everybody and fun. I hope this will gather students’ enthusiasm so they’ll be excited about it. Then, in the second unit we’ll go into the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books and probably watch some of the newer media,” Doherty said. “We want our teachers to be able to teach literary history, as well, so to make connections between a contemporary, silly cartoon show and other stories that came to us all the way from the 18th century is important.”

He finds the idea satisfying for multiple reasons.

“As a teacher, you get excited about novel approaches when you find a way to do it that feels new and different. It lets you tune into the creative process of teaching, plus it’s a carrot for the students. It’s important to inspire students to be authentically excited about the topic,” Doherty said. “I’d like to have them motivated by their own interests, excitement, and sense of fun. I see better work when I take that approach. And if they’re writing better papers or making better blog posts, it’s more interesting for me, too.”

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