HISTORY

Educators eventually lined up on both sides of the debate. Many, like Child Study Association of America Director Sidonie Gruenberg, saw comics as a force to be harnessed for education. Gruenberg (1944) cited numerous examples of educational comics for a variety of subjects, noting: "There is hardly a subject that does not lend itself to presentation through this medium" (p. 213). Others saw comics as a stumbling block to literacy. Nebraska principal Lucile Rosencrans, for instance, believed that comics impeded reading comprehension, imagination, and caused eyestrain (Dorrell, Curtis, & Rampal, 1995). School librarians were especially vehement in their disapproval of comic books, vilifying comics as an enemy of other reading (Dorrell, Curtis, & Rampal, 1995).

Over the next decade, comics began gaining ground in the world of education as well, slowly finding its way into the course catalogs of American higher learning institutions. Using comics, English professor Rocco Versaci (2001) challenged students at Palomar College to critically examine the very definition of literature. University of Minnesota Physics professor James Kakalios (2001) received media attention for his phenomenally popular introductory physics course "Science in Comic Books." Neil Williams replaced his traditional ESL course books with Calvin and Hobbes comic books at the American Language Institute of New York University (1995). With the establishment of both undergraduate and graduate programs in comics at the Savannah College of Art and Design (Sturm, 2001), comics finally emerged as a medium worthy of study in and of itself. Ironically, librarians in the new millennium were among comics' most vocal supporters, finding comic books useful in luring teenagers away from their televisions and video games (Bacon, 2002).

Today, educators at all levels are designing new ways of teaching through comics. In 2002, the New York City Comic Book Museum released C.O.M.I.C.S., an eight-lesson curriculum for K-12 students teaching the reading and creation of comics. Dozens of schools across the nation ordered the curriculum before it was even complete. The National Association of Comics Art Educators evangelizes colleges and universities on the importance of comics-based courses. Their website (www.teachingcomics.org) features the syllabi of existing courses, instructional units written by cartoonists and professors, and an online community of comics educators. "There really is a resurgence in this," high school teacher Jean Diamond says of comics-based projects, "and it's a fabulous way to get kids thinking creatively" (Wax, 2002).

Many of today's teachers use comics to encourage the very abilities some educators in the 1940’s feared it would squelch: reading and imagination. Ultimately, I must conclude that the American educational establishment has shied away from comics for incidental, historical reasons rather than deficiencies within the medium itself. In fact, upon close examination, several strengths of comics as an educational tool emerge as themes within the literature.

Conclusion

Clearly, the five identified strengths of comics - that comics is motivating, visual, permanent, intermediary, and popular - can be harnessed in practically any subject and at practically any grade level. Many innovative teachers have already done so with much success. As the misconceptions of the 1940's slowly fade, both the educational and comics communities look forward to a new generation of educational materials that teach through comics. To see some of the materials available today, explore the resources listed at the bottom of Comics in Education's home page.