Friday, March 2, 2012

Want to Learn?? Try Comics….

Comics, as well as cartoons, are an integral part of today’s world. It’s almost impossible to walk a mile without our eyes getting stuck on some ad featuring a comic or a character. Modern world has grown so much in its use of pictures (moving or still) that we find ourselves embedded in a virtual reality most of the time. So much is the importance of graphics and pictures that now a days it is an essential part of the education systems all over the world. It is one of the basic facts of education that children can be taught through the medium of cartoons and comics both essentially the same because they tell things using pictures. But, at the same time, the puritans in the academic world run a silent campaign against this newly found importance of the pictures. Whatever those debates may be, it has become an established fact that the use of pictures could be an easier way of teaching things to children since they seem to be paying more attention to these rather than the boring bunch of words in lessons.
In my opinion, comics and cartoons should also be incorporated in the book reading sessions in schools so that the students will get a better chance to understand the importance of the ‘picture culture’ prevailing around us and how new studies revolving around this new culture has been established in the academic circles.The whole new field of animation and advertising had been in the top of all the creative fields that we enjoy it almost every day without even realizing it.
Cartoons can be used as ‘visual aids’ in classrooms by teachers as an easier way of explaining concepts. For example, editorial cartoons from a particular period in the past could be used as an interesting way of looking at the history of that period.
 
The above given picture shows a student giving a reason for his inability to solve a mathematical problem due to his lack of the ‘math gene’ from his DNA.
Napoleon Bonaparte had once said that a picture is worth a thousand words. But, I believe that one cannot exist without the other. So, comics and cartoons could be a medium for an easier acquisition of knowledge.

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