Some thoughts and websites for Librarians, Literature / Language Arts & Math Teachers, as well as concerned Parents and others.
First of all, the opinions expressed here are Paul’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Captain Blue Hen Comics & Entertainment or its staff:
This may seem as heresy to my colleagues, but as a retired public school math teacher, I believe that the most important subject taught in school is not math, but reading. With all the emphasis in the math curriculum on applying the math, how is one to teach them how to do the math when they do not know what is being asked? (Math is definitely #2, however.)
Reading should be taught as being fun.* Comics can help in this area. Start that habit when kids are young. Does your son or daughter really need to spend hours in front of the newest game system? Joe, Dave, Kita, and some of our gracious local artists and writers have been visiting schools and libraries to try and introduce comics and graphic novels to young readers. Our comic distributor, Diamond Comics, has a website
- http:bookshelf.diamondcomics.com
that was created to help expand this medium. Check out its recommendations. Teachers can even get instructional packets utilizing comics in the classroom. If we are currently out of any trade mentioned on the site, Joe will be happy to order it for you.
* Do we really need a semester of Shakespeare every year through-out high school? (just a personal rant, but I know that the being forced to read the Bard turned off many a student)
A big peeve of mine is the pushing of calculators on elementary students before they have learned basic facts. As a high school math teacher, I experienced the wave of students who were given calculators instead of learning their multiplication tables - students who never learned how to perform long division. Try teaching algebra to students who can’t even do long division. Too many do not have any “number sense.” All they do is copy and accept whatever the machine says - not aware that they may have mistyped and their answer is ten times too large or too small. I’m all for calulators once you can demonstrate that you can do it without the “crutch.” Warning: more and more universities are not allowing freshmen to use graphics calculators. Do you think they are seeing the same thing? Anyway, I could rant on forever on this subject and invite your comments and observations. A couple of interesting youtube videos on teaching math in schools are:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1gee-bTZI
and a follow-up response at
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOH9gwImyXg
Enjoy and let us know what you think.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
(just a personal rant, but I know that the being forced to read the Bard turned off many a student)
(Sorry, if the comments don’t accept html tags.)
In the same way that students do not NEED geometry to get through life, students do not NEED Shakespeare. However, as a math teacher, would you deny them the upper level thinking required for more complex math?
As an English teacher, I won’t deny them Shakespeare, either.
Having said that, my first exposure to classic literature was in the amazing Kraven’s_Last_Hunt”Kraven’s Last Hunt” storyline from the Spiderman comics. William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” from the Songs of Experience was transposed by J.M. DeMatteis to read “Spyder, spyder burning bright…”, and I was hooked. I’m not sure I would be teaching English today if not for comics. So, I agree with the spirit of the post, but still love the bard.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Thanks for comment, Dave! Great to see that someone is READING this stuff! I agree that reading Shakespeare in its original form can be enjoyable to some. The problem I have observed is a lack of coordination between staff, unless that is the stated curriculum, and a resulting over emphasis (my opinion, again)on Shakespeare. There is whole world of others to choose from out there. Or, it would it be heresy for an English teacher to admit that he/she didn’t care for the Bard? Or, could it be that most love it and believe that they can teach it better than their colleagues? (stirring the pot, here). Like geometry, Shakespeare is challenging and complex. As a math oriented person, I like definitive answers, but enjoy a good argument. From what I remember, Shakespeare can be read and interpreted on different levels. Is the student wrong if he/she gets something different from what the teacher or manual says is the correct interpretation? Isn’t the subjectivity applied to other works of literature (the BiBle, the Kuran, etc.)the major cause of most of the problems the world has faced for centuries? (Whoa, getting deep here)Anyway, from personal experience, I consider myself fairly well educated, as is my circle of family and friends, and can honestly say I have never voluntarily read or discussed Shakespeare outside of my classroom experiences. Did I NEED Shakespeare? Not really. Did I NEED geometry? I will offer that almost everyone has employed concepts they have been introduced to in geometry, whether it was an informal course in middle school or a regular course in high school. Every home project you do uses geometry to some extent - some simple, some complex (ever cut crown moulding?)Yeah, but what about those torturous (sp?) “proofs” we had to do in formal geometry? Think of the satisfaction you get when you “make a good point” or win an argument. Those dreaded proofs paved the way for that straightforward, logical thinking. Whether you think you NEED it or not, GEOMETRY (earth measurement) is always around us.
Sorry, Dave, I don’t want to come off as confrontation. English and Math teachers have the toughest, most demanding and scrutinized jobs in education and they don’t get paid any more (oops, that’s another rant for another time) Thanks Paul
May 13th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Education as a whole is very important to everyone at CBH, each from our own perspective and reasons. I agree and applaud Paul for this post. Getting kids up and away from the games in very important. If you can make reading fun go for it!
In the manga section of CBH we have several Shakespeare classics drawn out in the manga format. In the kid section we have comics starring Superman and Batman that are also teaching Spanish. We also make sure to order issues of comics in Spanish. Star wars, Fantastic Four and now even some issues of the Blue Beetle are available in Spanish. There are many other educational topics being translated via comics now from religion to crime solving for all different groups. We’re here to help if you can’t find what your looking for!
Joe… you’re next….
May 14th, 2008 at 12:59 am
This is my two cents on all this:
I always was offended that so much credit in literature is given to Shakespeare considering so much of his work was derived from other places especially Plutarch. I think it should be taught but not in the sense that it was like the Holy Grail of literature because more modern works are not given the credit they deserve because Shakespeare even today is used as a measuring stick.
Another problem is kids are being groomed almost to think imagination won’t get you anywhere in life. It’s surprising how many schools ban Harry Potter because of religious groups or parents. If they are only allowed to read things that don’t play into their imagination, they are not getting the full experience of reading and that may be why some are turned off to doing it. Even though, comics have illustrations, taking them in when I was young I always imagined what happened between the panels. So they play into your imagination just as well and would be great teaching tools and I truly wish more schools used them. But comic books are a modern art form and modern art historically always is looked down upon by the bourgeoisie because it is somewhat of a radical change in tradition and radical change is always met with opposition because people are creatures of habit; change to them needs to come in small, unnoticeable doses. So comics in the classroom may not be traditional but any tool that works well should be utilized in helping children learn especially if they enjoy it!
And the calculator thing is saddening and basic math is so important to learn early. Just in every day life I encounter things like adding up discounts on purchases, interest rates on loans and credit cards, figuring out if value meals at restaurants truly work out less than buying things individually because a lot more times than people realize it does not. Also without knowing math basics you can’t figure out more complicated problems on a calculator because you need to know the equation (actually why algebra is important). But I think the fact that math isn’t being absorbed like it should be can even be linked to some of the current financial crises because people are not working the math out themselves and trusting companies or people who take a percentage of the cut to work it out for them.
I think geography falls under the lines of a feeler class. They expose the smarter kids to introductory levels of things necessary if they further their education. Geography is a taste of what they’d encounter in drafting, design, etc. Same thing as biology is sort of an introduction to medical, botanical, veterinary, etc. So it isn’t really necessary in regards to an everyday thing but it is there provide a taste of the options.