The Pitt, HBO Max’s Emmy-winning television medical drama, is a breakout hit.

Medical professionals and critics alike laud the show for its realistic portrayal of an emergency room.

That the show is also a master class in teaching has largely escaped notice.

As a critic and scholar who writes about representations of teachers in popular media, I hadn’t expected to think about teaching when tuning in for a fictional show about Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital.

Philosopher of education Adam Greteman and K.J. Burke, an expert in teacher education, highlight how popular media serves as an educational space. Lessons about schooling can appear as a pleasurable escape from reality, both reflecting and sometimes distorting the full scope of people’s lived experiences.

Television, film and even children’s picture books shape public perceptions of the teaching profession — and so does The Pitt.

Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) mentors a team of nurses and doctors at a teaching hospital. The ER may not be a formal classroom, but what makes The Pitt so intriguing as a case study about education is its setting outside the classroom. Interns learn on the go in a hands-on setting with real-world consequences and problems.

While I cannot comment specifically about the show’s depictions of what may be needed for best-practice ER infrastructure and education, I’m interested in how the show offers compelling insights around what it means to teach with and through trauma that are relevant for education in schools and at post-secondary levels at large.

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