Avatar the Last Airbender has been getting a lot of attention in recent weeks since being added onto Netflix, with old fans reminiscing on how great it was and new fans discovering it for the first time. With great characters, solid development, and deep themes integrated throughout the show, it is easy to see why so many fans love the cartoon. The show has remained relevant since its debut in 2005, receiving acclaim for discussing war, prejudice, responsibility, respect, and classism, amongst other prevalent themes throughout the show. However, one core theme that has not gotten enough attention or analysis from the fans: education. The creators of Avatar had a lot to say about the importance of education, still relevant for today’s youth and even our educators.
Education is a core theme in Avatar the Last Airbender. The show’s premise is about a 12-year old boy, Aang, traveling the world to learn how to bend the four elements from different masters, or teachers. He literally will not be able to accomplish his goals until he has finished his education. Other supporting characters also demonstrate the Education theme throughout the show as well, like when Katara transitions from student to teacher, or Iroh’s life lessons to his student, Zuko. The characters, and even the world they experience, are constantly learning on their journey. In this analysis, we will be dissecting some of the lessons Avatar the Last Airbender teaches on education and connecting them to how they should be applied today. There will be minor spoilers for all three seasons of the show below, so proceed at your own risk.
What Avatar has to teach students
The story starts with Aang, the Avatar, someone who has the ability to bend all four elements, waking up after being frozen in an ice block for 100 years. We learn halfway through season 1 that Aang, and his sky bison, Appa, was frozen after he ran away from his duty as the Avatar. Aang mirrors the trope of the prodigy, someone who is born with vast ability with the right mentorship. His air bending friends isolated him once they find out about his new role in the world, thinking that his powers would give him an unfair advantage in their games. This explains a lot of the slower, world building pacing of the earlier episodes as Aang visits places around the world; Aang shirks his educational responsibilities because he was treated differently by his peers in the past. Avatar teaches us that our strengths make us special, and everyone has their own strengths. Katara becomes a water bending master then Aang’s teacher, despite only being able to bend one element. Toph, despite her own physical limitations, adapts to invent her own way to earth bend and becomes the greatest earth bender ever (more on her later).
Avatar also teaches the importance of learning things in the proper order. One episode has Aang encounter someone who can teach him fire bending, but he is supposed to master water and earth bending before fire bending. This leads to him being unable to control the fire, and he unintentionally injures Katara. This symbolizes not learning the basics before attempting more difficult material. It is like trying to do multiplication before mastering addition. When we are given subjects or topics that we are not ready for in class, we get frustrated. We do not want to keep working on it because we do not understand it. Many of us grow to dislike the subject. Aang did not trust his teachers and rushed his education with disastrous results. Sometimes taking things slow will help with understanding the topic in the long run.
What Avatar has to teach teachers and educators
Teachers and educators can pull lessons from the Last Airbender as well. In season 2, when Aang starts to learn earth bending from his new master, Toph, he has some trouble learning under her style. Katara, who has been a teacher to Aang for a little while now, tries to help Toph by suggesting she change her approach. Aang comes from an entirely different philosophy than Toph; he was raised by monks in a floating air temple to be easy going and carefree. Toph, on the other hand, has had to struggle from birth, learning to stand her ground and be assertive to get her way. Toph ignores Katara’s advice at first, thinking that she had to teach Aang to be like her for him to master earth bending. They are complete opposites, Aang representing air and Toph representing earth, so he was never going to understand things her way. However, when Toph adapts her approach, without completely losing her style, Aang was able to excel, teaching us that different students sometimes need a different approach to master a subject. Sometimes slowing things down to understand how that student learns will help that student in the long run.
Aang and the gang do not have many problems with their teachers that they have throughout all three seasons, but one teacher that causes some problems upon his debut is Pakku, who refuses to teach Katara at first because under the Northern Water Tribe’s customs, women were only taught water bending to heal. Katara has to fight and impress Pakku with her abilities for him to ignore tradition and become her teacher. This is an important lesson towards the end of the season that no teacher should deny someone’s access to information based on gender, race, ability, class, etc. It is not the role of our education system to repress their student’s abilities; it is their responsibility to embrace and grow their student’s abilities. Unfortunately, that is not always the case in today’s society. If Katara had not stood her ground, she would not have gone on to be teaching the Avatar water bending; she would not have mastered long lost abilities in water bending culture; and she would not have saved the world. So, we should help each other up and see where their potential takes them, rather than creating imaginary flaws to hold them down.
What Avatar has to teach the world about ability
Toph’s introduction in season two highlighted an audience that does not get enough attention by today’s audience: people with disabilities. She is a young, blind girl born into nobility, which would make one think that her family was able to provide everything she would have needed. However, her family cannot see past her disability, telling her that she will never be an earth bending master because of her blindness. Toph was passionate though, pushing past the barriers her parents place in front of her so that she can learn how to earth bend. As she discovers her earth bending abilities, she learns how to use her powers to see her own way and how to express herself her own way. The show teaches us that there should not be any barriers to anyone’s learning; we should be increasing the access to learning and resources to our students with disabilities. Later in the show, Toph and Katara argue because Toph does not want to be seen as weak or helpless. So, she adapted because no one’s disabilities make them weak or a burden. Toph represents the potential of our students with disabilities when given the opportunity to excel. It would be amazing to see what they could achieve if given the resources and had placed faith in them and their abilities.
Avatar the Last Airbender has too many lessons on education to cover in one analysis. It teaches that education should be accessible to all when Master Piandao tells Sokka, “The way of the sword doesn’t belong to any one nation. Knowledge of the arts belongs to us all.” It teaches that biased education practices will negatively impact society for generations and be used to manipulate the past when Aang sneaks into a Fire Nation school. It teaches us to question what you have been taught as well when Zuko rebels against his father, seeing him as the oppressive ruler he actually is for the first time. The educational theme is scattered throughout the show, integrating its lessons better than most children’s programming.
I hope you will pick this show up, whether it is your first time watching the show or picking it back up for the first time since your childhood, as the show has a lot of themes that are relevant and relatable today. If you have watched it, let us know what your favorite moments and lessons were! We would love to discuss our favorites with you as well.