September 2, 2008, - 1:20 pm
Comic Book “Learning”: More Dumbing Down of America’s Schools
By Debbie Schlussel
Another of the many things I don’t expect either John McCain or Barack Hussein Obama to change is the downward spiral of our publick schoolz and the all-around desperate state of education in America. American kids are stupid. Dumb. Ignorant. And it’s only getting worse.
Now, the latest is the comic book textbook. And, predictably, like most comic books, these are dumbed down, left-wing exercises in political correctness. And your federal taxes are heavily subsidizing it. . . through the EPA?!
As a kid, I loved comic books, spurred on by my father who was a big fan of Captain Marvel. And I still have my collection. But reading them was an avocation, not a vocation. They were something to read on the side during free time, not my textbook.
Well, sadly, as kids returned to school in Oregon this week, that changed. If only John McCain would have the guts to denounce this kind of BS:
Educators are bringing comics to class, and they’re using them to teach kids to get along, appreciate literature and learn more effectively.
Since Dark Horse teamed with Columbia University in New York seven years ago to create the Comic Book Project, the curriculum has spread from one after-school class in Queens to 850 schools across the United States, including at least two Oregon schools, Glenfair Elementary in Portland and Ash Creek Elementary in Monmouth.
Dark Horse says libraries and schools are among its fastest growing markets, with sales rising about 25 percent a year. Comic-book-based curricula include such topics as environmentalism, anti-bullying, teamwork, child abuse, vocabulary, grammar and understanding epilepsy.
Um, why are environmentalism, anti-bullying, teamwork, child abuse, and epilepsy part of any curriculum in elementary schools? No wonder kids can’t read, do math, or write. But they know how to be eco-friendly.
“The demand for comics in education has exploded,” said Michael Bitz, founder of the Comic Book Project at Columbia University. . . .
The Comic Book Project has a budget of $200,000, most of it grants from agencies and institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Airways and the New York State Banking Department. . . .
Surveys and interviews with students and teachers showed comic books taught children to write, listen and speak better, he said.
Sure, they did. Puh-leeze.
Students — especially hard-to-reach students — find comic books less intimidating than textbooks, and they can frequently express themselves in comic books better than they can in traditional writing classes, he said. Plus, the visual medium can be more memorable, which means more lasting learning.
Some educators are skeptical, worrying Superman will replace Shakespeare and that comics dumb down lessons.
“If children want to read comic books, that’s their prerogative,” Diane Ravitch, a professor at New York University and a former U.S. assistant secretary of education, said in an e-mail. “But they are not good ‘tools’ for teaching reading.”
Comics use limited and superficial vocabulary, and they fail to teach children to read and think at the same time, she said.
Amen. I’ve always been a fan of Diane Ravitch. The woman is a genius . . . who never learned from comic books. Her books are must reading.
“Now that they’re being used in school, people are seeing that comics aren’t just guys in tights,” said a Dark Horse spokesman, Aaron Colter. “Yes, they’re pictures, but they’re a medium that should be respected,” he said, noting that comic books — now bound together and referred to more respectfully as graphic novels — get reviewed in The New York Times, sold at Barnes & Noble and used as study materials in colleges.
Yes, and we know what geniuses colleges now turn out. Ever see “Jaywalking” on “The Tonight Show”?
He described the acceptance of comic books in classrooms and libraries as part of a larger movement of graphic novels cementing their status as sophisticated literature and art. It’s only a matter of time before they become a standard supplement to the more traditional educational tools, Colter said.
G-d help us. Why not just have Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan reality shows to “teach” kids? Kids like those better than standard textbooks, too.
Andrea Daret used a comic-book curriculum last year with her fifth-graders at Glenfair Elementary School. The anti-bullying course she tried teaches children to resolve conflicts and consider different viewpoints.
“I really think it helped them get along better,” she said. “And best of all, they loved it.”
Again, why the heck are fifth-graders taking courses in anti-bullying? That’s fluff. Can they read? Can they add, multiply, and do division? Can they write and spell?
Say good-bye, America. I guarantee you that in China, in Japan, in India, in our most successful industrialized competitors’ countries, they are NOT learning from comic books.
And they aren’t taking dumb courses in anti-bullying and environmentalism either. They’re learning how to beat us.
They’ll be producing the best products, and we’ll be . . . reading Archie and the Green Hornet.
The movie, “Idiocracy“, comes closer and closer to prophecy, every day.
***
Given this, it might be a good idea to discourage your younger kids from marrying anyone from Oregon. If they have kids, it’ll dumb down your family’s future progeny.
But they’ll be experts on important things like Kryptonite and Jor-El.
Um, why are environmentalism, anti-bullying, teamwork, child abuse, and epilepsy part of any curriculum in elementary schools?
Whoa, teamwork? What kind of liberal schools are they going to!!!
[L: YEAH, YOU’RE RIGHT. TO HELL WITH INDIVIDUALISM. WE NEED TO BE COLLECTIVISTS, LIKE IN THE THEN-SOVIET UNION, WHERE IT WORKED SPLENDIDLY. REGARDLESS, THIS SHOULDN’T BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS, WHERE KIDS GO TO LEARN THE THREE Rs, NOT THIS SOFT, NEW AGE GOBBLEDY-GOOK. DS]
lolwut on September 2, 2008 at 1:44 pm