Do Comics Belong in the Classroom?

Gene Luen Yang presents why comic books are so important for education in his TED talk.

Gene Luen Yang fell in love with comics at a young age and immediately became aware that comics weren't welcomed in school. 

He became a teacher and published comic artist early in his career. He taught math and computer science and felt that he needed to keep the parts of his life that included comics from his teaching career.

At one point in time, he became a long-term sub for an Algebra class. However, he was required to miss classes fairly regularly due to his responsibilities to help other teachers with their technology needs. 

He attempted to record lectures for the days that he would not be in class to give the students some amount of continuity. The students did not appreciate them. 

Then he began to make quick, informal comics to teach the lessons when he couldn't be there. These comics were made with a sharpie and no real planning. The students loved these. They even began to request them on days that Mr. Yang would be in class.

The reason why they loved them seemed to be that students could intake the information at their own pace.

Why don't teachers use comics more? Dr. Warthom published a book blaming comics for causing juvenile delinquency. Even though there had been a large number of professional psychological journals and studies that suggested that utilizing comics in education is both useful and effective, this book caused enough of an uproar, that the reputation of comics was tarnished.

In the past decade, comics and graphic novels have gained widespread social acceptance and pop culture cred. 

Read more about Gene Luen Yang here.