The Best Educational TV Shows Of Your Childhood

Public access television gave me the knowledge to succeed in life. These shows put the "fun" in fundamental education. Seriously, I would have zero knowledge in science without Bill Nye and Ms. Frizzle.

• The Magic School Bus

  

  "I knew I should have stayed at home today!" Silly Arnold, if you stayed at home you wouldn't have learned about your digestive tract, sound waves, or outer space! [Episode list here]

• Reading Rainbow

  

  For the first 10 years of my life, I knew LeVar Burton's character on Star Trek as "the Reading Rainbow guy." My favorite episode was "Opt: An Illusionary Tale."

• Bill Nye the Science Guy

  

  Fact: Kids like weird experiments. Bill Nye will do them... and you will learn how it works! Mr. Nye was basically my science teacher throughout middle school.

• WishBone

  

  I seriously learned all the classics through WishBone. Watching this show made high school literature so much easier. WishBone's also adorable, just saying. [List of WishBone episodes]

• Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

  

  Thank you, Mr. Rogers, for teaching how sneakers are made, what pediatricians are, and that when I take the plug out of the bathtub I won't go down the drain.

• Sesame Street

  

  Not only hip with popular culture, Sesame Street has taught me the alphabet, how to count, and how to use my imagination.

• Dora the Explorer

  

  Okay, so... not on Public Access Television... and it wasn't broadcasting when I was really young... BUT SERIOUSLY, I learned ALL the Spanish I know from Dora the Explorer. Vámonos!