Reading With Pictures is a non-profit organization whose stated aim is to bring comics into the classroom as teaching tools. Their first publication to raise awareness and garner participation for their cause is the 192-page, full-color READING WITH PICTURES ANTHOLOGY; a title with contributions from a host of cartoonists. Seeing as much as I like a good promo, I’ll direct you to the video they released to Kickstarter.
I’ve always been a leery of incentives that try to make academia and comics meet. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I found that “new arts” did not mix with high school programs.
Paint a still life picture of some fruit? Great.
Play the clarinet? Fantastic.
But you’re really not in the right place if you want to try learning about heroic anatomy and dynamic perspective. I took at least two art classes in high school with that hope and, as I recall, they made me make a lot of macaroni, glue and construction paper mosaics, instead.
HOWEVER… upon reflection, I suppose I can vouch as a “success story” for integrating comics in the classroom. It took me longer than my classmates to learn how to read and I was actually put in a remedial program in second grade. After several meetings, the school psychologist concluded that it was really only a matter of me not wanting to read and he actually used Marvel coloring books as a means to get me interested. Considering that my second grade teacher was REALLY pushing to get me put on Ritalin, I’m obviously very grateful that the school psychologist was able to find a much more reasonable and far more creative answer to the issue.
I can probably even ascribe the whole incident as an important reason why I’m doing what I’m doing, now. So, with that in mind, I can definitely get behind Reading With Pictures. I encourage everybody to check out their website, see what they’re about and make a contribution, if you can.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.