How Cartoons Can Be A Positive Influence In The Schools
Rick London
School-aged and college kids today are smarter and more worldly than my own 60's generation. Obviously, as many of us (now adults) have learned, we have much to learn from them.
Unlike religion or spirituality, education has no raptures, although there can be many "eureka moments" of learning. There are no born-again graduates. It is a process. It is a long-term process of the gaining of knowledge and skills that can be taken into adulthood, and, hopefully utilized.
Modern day education's origins are from the Greek word "educare" which means "to draw out". The ancient Greeks felt that the child already had the seed of knowledge in them, and a good educator simply spent time drawing that knowledge out, rather than pushing it in. Many, but of course not all, of today's educators are ego-driven and have forgotten the real meaning of education and use their teaching platform as a pulpit to share how very smart they are. This is how we can immediately sense a progressive teacher, that is, one who understands educare, as opposed to one who does not.
the time a student today reaches middle school, he or she can be rather cynical about the whole education process, is often aware of their environment, and more often than not, are on the same stage as the teacher. Often they do not perceive the classroom as some kind of meeting of the minds, as our like we did as kids. Many of them look at it as a part of their day, and understand they are going through a process that helps them reach adulthood. Most of us, at least in my circle, hadn't really a clue as to why we were there. All we were taught is that we were there so we could eventually get into a major university. Nothing more. Some of us did not even have a clue as to why we would need a college degree.
Distractions, often too many, take away from the focus of learning today They, like us, have shortcuts to knowledge, same as we (adults) do, such as the Internet. The Xerox television commercial of the teacher telling the students that getting a book published is tough because it takes money, and a student raising his hand and debating that due to the new print on demand process, exemplifies that.
One thing that kids still have in common that they have had for generations is they enjoy humor, at least most. Many progressive educators are using educational cartoons to "lighten up the learning process" and even major textbook publishers are utilizing such cartoons in their books. They know that kids tend to be more visually than verbally-oriented. A picture draws their attention. A funny picture draws their attention even more.
Their knowing that their instructor may enjoy a good laugh as well, helps bond the students to the teacher and can make the learning process that much easier. Humor is a great conflict-resolver as well.
We often quiz the school or publisher after sending their cartoon order to see what kind of reaction it got. We have been doing this for a decade and every one has been positive and we generally get second and third orders the same year. It seems to have a great impact if used occasionally; not too often but often enough to keep the students interested.
Rick London and his illustrative team have been creating cartoons in various topics from law to science to animals to medicine for over a decade Londons Times Cartoons http://www.londonstimes.us) School System & Textbook Publishers Using Cartoons To Enhance Learning By Londons Times Cartoons
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