0:00:00.853,0:00:02.331
When I was in the fifth grade,

0:00:02.331,0:00:06.759
I bought an issue[br]of DC Comics Presents #57

0:00:06.759,0:00:09.556
off of a spinner rack[br]at my local bookstore,

0:00:09.556,0:00:12.737
and that comic book changed my life.

0:00:13.292,0:00:16.515
The combination of words and pictures[br]did something inside my head

0:00:16.515,0:00:18.288
that had never been done before,

0:00:18.288,0:00:22.041
and I immediately fell in love[br]with the medium of comics.

0:00:22.041,0:00:25.224
I became a voracious comic book reader,

0:00:25.224,0:00:27.036
but I never brought them to school.

0:00:27.036,0:00:32.293
Instinctively, I knew that comic books[br]didn't belong in the classroom.

0:00:32.779,0:00:35.128
My parents definitely were not fans,

0:00:35.128,0:00:38.302
and I was certain that my teachers[br]wouldn't be either.

0:00:38.302,0:00:40.333
After all, they never used them to teach,

0:00:40.333,0:00:44.654
comic books and graphic novels were never[br]allowed during silent sustained reading,

0:00:44.654,0:00:48.104
and they were never sold[br]at our annual book fair.

0:00:48.104,0:00:50.333
Even so, I kept reading comics,

0:00:50.333,0:00:52.396
and I even started making them.

0:00:52.396,0:00:55.056
Eventually I became a published cartoonist

0:00:55.056,0:00:57.935
writing and drawing[br]comic books for a living.

0:00:58.844,0:01:01.223
I also became a high school teacher.

0:01:01.223,0:01:02.464
This is where I taught:

0:01:02.464,0:01:05.428
Bishop O'Dowd High School[br]in Oakland, California.

0:01:05.428,0:01:07.484
I taught a little bit of math[br]and a little bit of art,

0:01:07.484,0:01:09.098
but mostly computer science,

0:01:09.098,0:01:11.684
and I was there for 17 years.

0:01:11.684,0:01:13.527
When I was brand new teacher,

0:01:13.527,0:01:16.776
I tried bringing comic books[br]into my classroom.

0:01:16.776,0:01:19.657
I remember telling my students[br]on the first day of every class

0:01:19.657,0:01:21.813
that I was also a cartoonist.

0:01:21.813,0:01:25.265
It wasn't so much that I was planning[br]to teach them with comics,

0:01:25.265,0:01:29.646
it was more that I was hoping comics[br]would make them think that I was cool.

0:01:29.646,0:01:30.654
(Laughter)

0:01:30.654,0:01:32.000
I was wrong.

0:01:32.000,0:01:34.090
This was the '90s,

0:01:34.090,0:01:38.100
so comic books didn't have[br]the cultural cache that they do today.

0:01:38.100,0:01:42.118
My students didn't think I was cool.[br]They thought I was kind of a dork.

0:01:42.118,0:01:45.154
And even worse, when stuff[br]got hard in my class,

0:01:45.154,0:01:48.365
they would use comic books[br]as a way of distracting me.

0:01:48.365,0:01:51.043
They would raise their hands[br]and me questions like,

0:01:51.043,0:01:52.930
"Mr. Yang, who do you think[br]would win in a fight,

0:01:52.930,0:01:55.146
Superman or the Hulk?"

0:01:55.146,0:01:56.074
(Laughter)

0:01:56.074,0:02:01.027
I very quickly realized I had to keep[br]my teaching and my cartooning separate.

0:02:01.027,0:02:04.097
It seemed like my instincts[br]in fifth grade were correct.

0:02:04.097,0:02:07.557
Comic books didn't belong[br]in the classroom.

0:02:08.011,0:02:09.980
But again, I was wrong.

0:02:09.980,0:02:12.101
A few years into my teaching career,

0:02:12.101,0:02:16.912
I learned firsthand[br]the educational potential of comics.

0:02:16.912,0:02:20.613
One semester, I was asked to sub[br]for this Algebra 2 class.

0:02:20.613,0:02:24.895
I was asked to long-term sub it,[br]and I said yes, but there was a problem.

0:02:24.895,0:02:28.559
At the time, I was also the school's[br]educational technologist,

0:02:28.559,0:02:30.572
which meant every couple of weeks

0:02:30.572,0:02:33.876
I had to miss one or two periods[br]of this Algebra 2 class

0:02:33.876,0:02:36.813
because I was in another classroom[br]helping another teacher

0:02:36.813,0:02:38.903
with a computer-related activity.

0:02:38.903,0:02:41.940
For these Algebra 2 students,[br]that was terrible.

0:02:41.940,0:02:44.580
I mean, having a long-term[br]sub is bad enough,

0:02:44.580,0:02:48.222
but having a sub for your sub?[br]That's the worst.

0:02:48.222,0:02:52.386
In an effort to provide some sort[br]of consistency for my students,

0:02:52.386,0:02:55.447
I began videotaping[br]myself giving lectures.

0:02:55.447,0:02:58.939
I'd then give these videos to my sub[br]to play for my students.

0:02:58.939,0:03:03.139
I tried to make these videos[br]as engaging as possible.

0:03:03.139,0:03:05.550
I even included these[br]little special effects.

0:03:05.550,0:03:08.317
For instance, after I finished[br]a problem on the board,

0:03:08.317,0:03:10.332
I'd clap my hands,

0:03:10.332,0:03:12.618
and the board would magically erase.

0:03:12.618,0:03:14.046
(Laughter)

0:03:14.046,0:03:16.452
I thought it was pretty awesome.

0:03:16.452,0:03:19.223
I was pretty certain[br]that my students would love it,

0:03:19.223,0:03:20.852
but I was wrong.

0:03:20.852,0:03:22.350
(Laughter)

0:03:22.350,0:03:24.809
These video lectures were a disaster.

0:03:24.809,0:03:26.915
I had students coming up to me[br]and saying things like,

0:03:26.915,0:03:29.233
"Mr. Yang, we thought[br]you were boring in person,

0:03:29.233,0:03:32.613
but on video, you are just unbearable."

0:03:32.613,0:03:34.752
(Laughter)

0:03:34.752,0:03:40.132
So as a desperate second attempt,[br]I began drawing these lectures as comics.

0:03:40.132,0:03:42.409
I'd do these very quickly[br]with very little planning.

0:03:42.409,0:03:45.571
I'd just take a sharpie,[br]draw one panel after the other,

0:03:45.571,0:03:48.185
figuring out what I wanted[br]to say as I went.

0:03:48.185,0:03:52.154
These comics lectures would come out to[br]anywhere between four and six pages long,

0:03:52.154,0:03:55.033
I'd xerox these, give them to my sub

0:03:55.033,0:03:56.945
to hand to my students,

0:03:56.945,0:03:59.130
and much to my surprise,

0:03:59.130,0:04:02.252
these comics lectures were a hit.

0:04:02.252,0:04:04.856
My students would ask me[br]to make these for them

0:04:04.856,0:04:07.762
even when I could be there in person.

0:04:07.762,0:04:12.569
It was like they liked cartoon me[br]more than actual me.

0:04:12.569,0:04:14.980
(Laughter)

0:04:14.980,0:04:18.472
This surprised me, because my students[br]are part of a generation

0:04:18.472,0:04:20.282
that was raised on screens,

0:04:20.282,0:04:23.515
so I thought for sure they would like[br]learning from a screen

0:04:23.515,0:04:26.015
better than learning from a page,

0:04:26.015,0:04:27.991
but when I talked to my students

0:04:27.991,0:04:31.125
about why they liked[br]these comics lectures so much,

0:04:31.125,0:04:35.595
I began to understand[br]the educational potential of comics.

0:04:35.595,0:04:38.042
First, unlike their math textbooks,

0:04:38.042,0:04:40.733
these comics lectures taught visually.

0:04:40.733,0:04:43.777
Our students grow up in a visual culture,

0:04:43.777,0:04:46.186
so they're used to taking in[br]information that way.

0:04:46.186,0:04:49.145
But unlike other visual narratives,

0:04:49.145,0:04:53.501
like film or television[br]or animation or video,

0:04:53.501,0:04:56.718
comics are what I call permanent.

0:04:56.718,0:05:02.460
In a comic, past, present, and future[br]all sit side by side on the same page.

0:05:02.460,0:05:05.628
This means that the rate[br]of information flow

0:05:05.628,0:05:08.976
is firmly in the hands of the reader.

0:05:08.976,0:05:13.758
When my students didn't understand[br]something in my comics lecture,

0:05:13.758,0:05:18.119
they could just reread that passage[br]as quickly or as slowly as they needed.

0:05:18.119,0:05:21.841
It was like I was giving them[br]a remote control over the information.

0:05:21.841,0:05:24.759
The same was not true of my video lectures

0:05:24.759,0:05:27.653
and it wasn't even true[br]of my in-person lectures.

0:05:27.653,0:05:32.424
When I speak, I deliver the information[br]as quickly or slowly as I want.

0:05:32.424,0:05:36.045
So for certain students[br]and certain kinds of information,

0:05:36.045,0:05:40.957
these two aspects of the comics medium,[br]its visual nature and its permanence,

0:05:40.957,0:05:44.574
make it an incredibly powerful[br]educational tool.

0:05:44.574,0:05:46.574
When I was teaching this Algebra 2 class,

0:05:46.574,0:05:50.686
I was also working on my Masters[br]in Education at Cal State East Bay,

0:05:50.686,0:05:54.823
and I was so intrigued by this experience[br]that I had with these comics lectures

0:05:54.823,0:05:59.936
that I decided to focus[br]my final Masters project on comics.

0:05:59.936,0:06:03.005
I wanted to figure out[br]why American educators

0:06:03.005,0:06:08.137
have historically been so reluctant[br]to use comic books in their classrooms.

0:06:08.137,0:06:10.373
Here's what I discovered.

0:06:10.373,0:06:13.096
Comic books first became[br]a mass medium in the 1940s,

0:06:13.096,0:06:15.263
with millions of copies[br]selling every month,

0:06:15.263,0:06:17.719
and educators back then took notice.

0:06:17.719,0:06:17.969
A lot of innovative teachers began[br]bringing comics into their classrooms

0:06:23.252,0:06:24.165
to experiment.

0:06:24.165,0:06:26.785
In 1944, the Journal[br]of Educational Sociology

0:06:26.785,0:06:30.227
even devoted an entire issue[br]to this topic.

0:06:30.638,0:06:32.929
Things seemed to be progressing.

0:06:32.929,0:06:35.197
Teachers were starting[br]to figure things out.

0:06:35.197,0:06:37.399
But then along comes this guy.

0:06:37.399,0:06:41.410
This is child psychologist[br]Dr. Fredric Wertham,

0:06:41.410,0:06:45.352
and in 1954, he wrote a book[br]called "Seduction of the Innocent,"

0:06:45.352,0:06:50.271
where he argues that comic books[br]cause juvenile delinquency.

0:06:50.271,0:06:51.302
(Laughter)

0:06:51.302,0:06:52.863
He was wrong.

0:06:52.863,0:06:54.877
Now, Dr. Wertham was actually[br]a pretty decent guy.

0:06:54.877,0:06:58.293
He spent most of his career[br]working with juvenile delinquents,

0:06:58.293,0:07:03.248
and in his work he noticed[br]that most of his clients read comic books.

0:07:03.248,0:07:07.115
What Dr. Wertham failed to realize[br]was in the 1940s and '50s,

0:07:07.115,0:07:11.263
almost every kid in America[br]read comic books.

0:07:11.263,0:07:14.657
Dr. Wertham does a pretty[br]dubious job of proving his case,

0:07:14.657,0:07:18.493
but his book does inspire[br]the Senate of the United States

0:07:18.493,0:07:20.118
to hold a series of hearings

0:07:20.118,0:07:25.043
to see if in fact comic books[br]cause juvenile delinquency.

0:07:25.043,0:07:27.711
These hearings lasted[br]for almost two months.

0:07:27.711,0:07:31.953
They ended inconclusively,[br]but not before doing tremendous damage

0:07:31.953,0:07:36.480
to the reputation of comic books[br]in the eyes of the American public.

0:07:36.480,0:07:40.669
After this, respectable American[br]educators all backed away,

0:07:40.669,0:07:42.781
and they stayed away for decades.

0:07:42.781,0:07:46.114
It wasn't until the 1970s[br]that a few brave souls

0:07:46.114,0:07:47.617
started making their way back in,

0:07:47.617,0:07:49.630
and it really wasn't[br]until pretty recently,

0:07:49.630,0:07:51.290
maybe the last decade or so,

0:07:51.290,0:07:53.816
that comics have seen[br]more widespread acceptance

0:07:53.816,0:07:56.098
among American educators.

0:07:56.098,0:07:59.991
Comic books and graphic novels are now[br]finally making their way

0:07:59.991,0:08:02.021
back into American classrooms,

0:08:02.021,0:08:06.025
and this is even happening[br]at Bishop O'Dowd, where I used to teach.

0:08:06.025,0:08:07.735
Mr. Smith, one of my former colleagues,

0:08:07.735,0:08:10.647
uses Scott McCloud's[br]"Understanding Comics"

0:08:10.647,0:08:14.503
in his literature and film class,[br]because that book gives his students

0:08:14.503,0:08:19.739
the language with which to discuss[br]the relationship between words and images.

0:08:19.739,0:08:23.423
Mr. Burns assigns a comics essay[br]to his students every year.

0:08:23.423,0:08:27.661
By asking his students to process[br]a prose novel using images,

0:08:27.661,0:08:30.125
Mr. Burns asks them to think deeply

0:08:30.125,0:08:32.282
not just about the story

0:08:32.282,0:08:35.390
but also about how that story is told.

0:08:35.390,0:08:38.450
And Ms. Murrock uses my own[br]"American Born Chinese"

0:08:38.450,0:08:40.338
with her English 1 students.

0:08:40.338,0:08:43.870
For her, graphic novels[br]are a great way of fulfilling

0:08:43.870,0:08:45.739
a Common Core Standard.

0:08:45.739,0:08:48.750
The Standard states that students[br]ought to be able to analyze

0:08:48.750,0:08:54.788
how visual elements contribute[br]to the meaning, tone and beauty of a text.

0:08:54.788,0:08:57.984
Over in the library, Mr. ??[br]has built a pretty impressive

0:08:57.984,0:09:00.370
graphic novel collection[br]for Bishop O'Dowd.

0:09:00.370,0:09:03.672
Now, Ms. ?? and all[br]of her librarian colleagues

0:09:03.672,0:09:06.697
have really been at the forefront[br]of comics advocacy,

0:09:06.697,0:09:09.846
really since the early '80s,[br]when a school library journal article

0:09:09.846,0:09:14.594
stated that the mere presence[br]of graphic novels in the library

0:09:14.594,0:09:17.339
increased usage by about 80 percent,

0:09:17.339,0:09:21.070
and increased the circulation[br]of non-comics material

0:09:21.070,0:09:23.094
by about 30 percent.

0:09:23.094,0:09:26.612
Inspired by this renewed interest[br]from American educators,

0:09:26.612,0:09:31.417
American cartoonists are now producing[br]more explicitly educational content

0:09:31.417,0:09:34.562
for the K-12 market than ever before.

0:09:34.562,0:09:37.561
A lot of this is directed[br]at language arts,

0:09:37.561,0:09:39.784
but more and more comics[br]and graphic novels

0:09:39.784,0:09:43.378
are starting to tackle[br]math and science topics.

0:09:43.378,0:09:47.823
STEM comics graphics novels[br]really are like this uncharted territory,

0:09:47.823,0:09:49.842
ready to be explored.

0:09:49.842,0:09:55.511
America is finally waking up to the fact[br]that comic books do not cause

0:09:55.511,0:09:57.586
juvenile delinquency,

0:09:57.586,0:10:01.848
that they really do belong[br]in every educator's toolkit.

0:10:01.848,0:10:05.475
There's no good reason to keep[br]comic books and graphic novels

0:10:05.475,0:10:07.281
out of K-12 education.

0:10:07.281,0:10:09.009
They teach visually,

0:10:09.009,0:10:12.567
they give our students[br]that remote control.

0:10:12.567,0:10:15.244
The educational potential is there

0:10:15.244,0:10:17.890
just waiting to be tapped

0:10:17.890,0:10:19.537
by creative people like you.

0:10:19.537,0:10:21.150
Thank you.

0:10:21.150,0:10:23.753
(Applause)