Teachers are using comics to captivate reluctant readers
These are not your father’s comic books. Superman and Wonder Woman, yes; but also graphic novel editions of the works of Shakespeare, and many classics — The Red Badge of Courage, Beowulf, Greek myths, the Adventures of Robin Hood, even Canterbury Tales.
I am all for education but I am horrified at the “dumbing down” of education by using methods like these. Instead of comic books, shouldn’t children be getting the real thing? We seem to be heading into a world where children are not encouraged to think properly. Where classics are thrown to one side in favour of comic books and iPod’s. Where classic movies are discarded in favour of reality TV shows.
Call me old-fashioned if you want but the teacher in this story isn’t helping her students. She’s making things worse.
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March 25th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
“dumbing down”?? Why should the adittion of graphics dumb anything down? Would watching the play detract from the words?
I absolutely agree that we should encourage children to read. It should be an essential part of a day - just like logging on or plugging in an ipod is.
Todays Playstaion generation expects colour, life and action. That’s not how it was when I was a child, but the world has moved on. We need to move with it.
Teachers are using these books to encourage reluctant readers into classics. They appear to be working. We’ve had over 100,000 downloads of our free teachers resource from our website. Ten year old boys and girls and sqauabbling over who gets to read Henry V first. Yes, Henry V. So I may be biased about the books (and ours in particular) but as the parent of a boy who won’t read straight text unless forced, I’m more than happy to use a route I know will work.
have another look http://www.classicalcomics.com
March 25th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Mind you, before mentioning ‘dumbing down’ I should make sure the comment isn’t peppered with typos caused by frozen fingers!! Mine, rather than fish versions! Sorry all! Karen