1
00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:02,216
When I was in the fifth grade,

2
00:00:02,240 --> 00:00:06,616
I bought an issue
of "DC Comics Presents #57"

3
00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,376
off of a spinner rack
at my local bookstore,

4
00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:13,096
and that comic book changed my life.

5
00:00:13,120 --> 00:00:16,496
The combination of words and pictures
did something inside my head

6
00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:18,056
that had never been done before

7
00:00:18,080 --> 00:00:21,776
and I immediately fell in love
with the medium of comics.

8
00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:24,976
I became a voracious comic book reader,

9
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:26,696
but I never brought them to school.

10
00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:32,536
Instinctively, I knew that comic books
didn't belong in the classroom.

11
00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:34,976
My parents definitely were not fans

12
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,096
and I was certain that my teachers
wouldn't be either.

13
00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:40,376
After all, they never used them to teach,

14
00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:44,296
comic books and graphic novels were never
allowed during silent sustained reading

15
00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,816
and they were never sold
at our annual book fair.

16
00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:50,416
Even so, I kept reading comics

17
00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:52,056
and I even started making them.

18
00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:55,096
Eventually I became a published cartoonist

19
00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:57,920
writing and drawing
comic books for a living.

20
00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:00,936
I also became a high school teacher.

21
00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:02,256
This is where I taught:

22
00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,096
Bishop O'Dowd High School
in Oakland, California.

23
00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:07,656
I taught a little bit of math
and a little bit of art,

24
00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:09,056
but mostly computer science,

25
00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:11,496
and I was there for 17 years.

26
00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:13,376
When I was a brand new teacher,

27
00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,536
I tried bringing comic books
into my classroom.

28
00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:19,656
I remember telling my students
on the first day of every class

29
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:21,776
that I was also a cartoonist.

30
00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,896
It wasn't so much that I was planning
to teach them with comics,

31
00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:28,936
it was more that I was hoping comics
would make them think that I was cool.

32
00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:30,376
(Laughter)

33
00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:31,776
I was wrong.

34
00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:33,776
This was the '90s,

35
00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:38,096
so comic books didn't have
the cultural cachet that they do today.

36
00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:42,056
My students didn't think I was cool.
They thought I was kind of a dork.

37
00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:44,976
And even worse,
when stuff got hard in my class,

38
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,296
they would use comic books
as a way of distracting me.

39
00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:50,936
They would raise their hands
and ask me questions like,

40
00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:53,296
"Mr. Yang, who do you think
would win in a fight,

41
00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:54,576
Superman or the Hulk?"

42
00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:55,616
(Laughter)

43
00:01:55,640 --> 00:02:00,696
I very quickly realized I had to keep
my teaching and my cartooning separate.

44
00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,136
It seemed like my instincts
in fifth grade were correct.

45
00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:07,200
Comic books didn't belong
in the classroom.

46
00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:09,240
But again, I was wrong.

47
00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:11,856
A few years into my teaching career,

48
00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:16,776
I learned firsthand
the educational potential of comics.

49
00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:20,336
One semester, I was asked to sub
for this Algebra 2 class.

50
00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:24,656
I was asked to long-term sub it
and I said yes, but there was a problem.

51
00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:28,376
At the time, I was also
the school's educational technologist,

52
00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:30,296
which meant every couple of weeks

53
00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:33,736
I had to miss one or two periods
of this Algebra 2 class

54
00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:36,576
because I was in another classroom
helping another teacher

55
00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:38,696
with a computer-related activity.

56
00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,856
For these Algebra 2 students,
that was terrible.

57
00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:44,496
I mean, having a long-term
sub is bad enough,

58
00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,640
but having a sub for your sub?
That's the worst.

59
00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,216
In an effort to provide some sort
of consistency for my students,

60
00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:55,096
I began videotaping
myself giving lectures.

61
00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,736
I'd then give these videos to my sub
to play for my students.

62
00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:03,216
I tried to make these videos
as engaging as possible.

63
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,376
I even included
these little special effects.

64
00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,256
For instance, after I finished
a problem on the board,

65
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:09,896
I'd clap my hands

66
00:03:09,920 --> 00:03:12,336
and the board would magically erase.

67
00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:13,776
(Laughter)

68
00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:15,360
I thought it was pretty awesome.

69
00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,016
I was pretty certain
that my students would love it,

70
00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:20,256
but I was wrong.

71
00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:21,656
(Laughter)

72
00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,536
These video lectures were a disaster.

73
00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,136
I had students coming up to me
and saying things like,

74
00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:29,416
"Mr. Yang, we thought
you were boring in person,

75
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:32,896
but on video, you are just unbearable."

76
00:03:32,920 --> 00:03:34,536
(Laughter)

77
00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:39,896
So as a desperate second attempt,
I began drawing these lectures as comics.

78
00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:42,376
I'd do these very quickly
with very little planning.

79
00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:45,216
I'd just take a sharpie,
draw one panel after the other,

80
00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:47,936
figuring out what I wanted
to say as I went.

81
00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:49,696
These comics lectures would come out

82
00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:51,816
to anywhere between
four and six pages long,

83
00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:56,816
I'd xerox these, give them to my sub
to hand to my students.

84
00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,056
And much to my surprise,

85
00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,896
these comics lectures were a hit.

86
00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:05,456
My students would ask me
to make these for them

87
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,416
even when I could be there in person.

88
00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:12,536
It was like they liked cartoon me
more than actual me.

89
00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:14,616
(Laughter)

90
00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:18,336
This surprised me, because my students
are part of a generation

91
00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:20,255
that was raised on screens,

92
00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,496
so I thought for sure they would like
learning from a screen

93
00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:26,056
better than learning from a page,

94
00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:27,736
but when I talked to my students

95
00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,976
about why they liked
these comics lectures so much,

96
00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,376
I began to understand
the educational potential of comics.

97
00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:38,016
First, unlike their math textbooks,

98
00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:40,616
these comics lectures taught visually.

99
00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:43,456
Our students grow up in a visual culture,

100
00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,216
so they're used to taking in
information that way.

101
00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,016
But unlike other visual narratives,

102
00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:53,856
like film or television
or animation or video,

103
00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:56,736
comics are what I call permanent.

104
00:04:56,760 --> 00:05:02,416
In a comic, past, present and future
all sit side by side on the same page.

105
00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:05,856
This means that the rate
of information flow

106
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:08,600
is firmly in the hands of the reader.

107
00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:13,576
When my students didn't understand
something in my comics lecture,

108
00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,816
they could just reread that passage
as quickly or as slowly as they needed.

109
00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:21,816
It was like I was giving them
a remote control over the information.

110
00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:24,736
The same was not true of my video lectures

111
00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,536
and it wasn't even true
of my in-person lectures.

112
00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:32,296
When I speak, I deliver the information
as quickly or slowly as I want.

113
00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:35,696
So for certain students
and certain kinds of information,

114
00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:40,656
these two aspects of the comics medium,
its visual nature and its permanence,

115
00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:44,336
make it an incredibly powerful
educational tool.

116
00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:46,336
When I was teaching this Algebra 2 class,

117
00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:50,576
I was also working on my master's
in education at Cal State East Bay

118
00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:54,656
and I was so intrigued by this experience
that I had with these comics lectures

119
00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:59,776
that I decided to focus
my final master's project on comics.

120
00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:02,776
I wanted to figure out
why American educators

121
00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:08,016
have historically been so reluctant
to use comic books in their classrooms.

122
00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:10,136
Here's what I discovered.

123
00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,816
Comic books first became
a mass medium in the 1940s,

124
00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:15,256
with millions of copies
selling every month

125
00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:17,416
and educators back then took notice.

126
00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:21,416
A lot of innovative teachers began
bringing comics into their classrooms

127
00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:22,776
to experiment.

128
00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:26,656
In 1944, the "Journal
of Educational Sociology"

129
00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:30,256
even devoted an entire issue
to this topic.

130
00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:32,656
Things seemed to be progressing.

131
00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:35,056
Teachers were starting
to figure things out.

132
00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:37,376
But then along comes this guy.

133
00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:41,376
This is child psychologist
Dr. Fredric Wertham,

134
00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:45,336
and in 1954, he wrote a book
called "Seduction of the Innocent,"

135
00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:49,896
where he argues that comic books
cause juvenile delinquency.

136
00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:50,976
(Laughter)

137
00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:52,616
He was wrong.

138
00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:55,016
Now, Dr. Wertham was actually
a pretty decent guy.

139
00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:58,096
He spent most of his career
working with juvenile delinquents

140
00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:03,336
and in his work he noticed
that most of his clients read comic books.

141
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:07,096
What Dr. Wertham failed to realize
was in the 1940s and '50s,

142
00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:11,256
almost every kid in America
read comic books.

143
00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:14,616
Dr. Wertham does a pretty
dubious job of proving his case,

144
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:17,976
but his book does inspire
the Senate of the United States

145
00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:20,096
to hold a series of hearings

146
00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:24,120
to see if in fact comic books
caused juvenile delinquency.

147
00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:27,456
These hearings lasted
for almost two months.

148
00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:31,976
They ended inconclusively,
but not before doing tremendous damage

149
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:36,176
to the reputation of comic books
in the eyes of the American public.

150
00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:40,536
After this, respectable American
educators all backed away

151
00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:42,376
and they stayed away for decades.

152
00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:43,856
It wasn't until the 1970s

153
00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,336
that a few brave souls
started making their way back in

154
00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:49,416
and it really wasn't
until pretty recently,

155
00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:51,136
maybe the last decade or so,

156
00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,056
that comics have seen
more widespread acceptance

157
00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:55,856
among American educators.

158
00:07:55,880 --> 00:08:00,016
Comic books and graphic novels
are now finally making their way

159
00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:01,896
back into American classrooms

160
00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:05,736
and this is even happening
at Bishop O'Dowd, where I used to teach.

161
00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:07,656
Mr. Smith, one of my former colleagues,

162
00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:10,616
uses Scott McCloud's
"Understanding Comics"

163
00:08:10,640 --> 00:08:14,616
in his literature and film class,
because that book gives his students

164
00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:19,736
the language with which to discuss
the relationship between words and images.

165
00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:23,656
Mr. Burns assigns a comics essay
to his students every year.

166
00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:27,616
By asking his students
to process a prose novel using images,

167
00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:30,176
Mr. Burns asks them to think deeply

168
00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:32,135
not just about the story

169
00:08:32,159 --> 00:08:35,176
but also about how that story is told.

170
00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:38,296
And Ms. Murrock uses
my own "American Born Chinese"

171
00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,096
with her English 1 students.

172
00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:41,736
For her, graphic novels

173
00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:45,536
are a great way of fulfilling
a Common Core Standard.

174
00:08:45,560 --> 00:08:48,456
The Standard states that students
ought to be able to analyze

175
00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:54,200
how visual elements contribute
to the meaning, tone and beauty of a text.

176
00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:57,976
Over in the library, Ms. Counts
has built a pretty impressive

177
00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,336
graphic novel collection
for Bishop O'Dowd.

178
00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:03,536
Now, Ms. Counts and all
of her librarian colleagues

179
00:09:03,560 --> 00:09:06,576
have really been at the forefront
of comics advocacy,

180
00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:10,096
really since the early '80s,
when a school library journal article

181
00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:14,456
stated that the mere presence
of graphic novels in the library

182
00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:17,256
increased usage by about 80 percent

183
00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:21,336
and increased the circulation
of noncomics material

184
00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:22,600
by about 30 percent.

185
00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:26,656
Inspired by this renewed interest
from American educators,

186
00:09:26,680 --> 00:09:31,616
American cartoonists are now producing
more explicitly educational content

187
00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:34,336
for the K-12 market than ever before.

188
00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,536
A lot of this is directed
at language arts,

189
00:09:37,560 --> 00:09:39,616
but more and more comics
and graphic novels

190
00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:43,136
are starting to tackle
math and science topics.

191
00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:47,656
STEM comics graphics novels
really are like this uncharted territory,

192
00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:49,120
ready to be explored.

193
00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:52,416
America is finally waking up to the fact

194
00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:56,616
that comic books
do not cause juvenile delinquency.

195
00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:57,656
(Laughter)

196
00:09:57,680 --> 00:10:01,856
That they really do belong
in every educator's toolkit.

197
00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:05,216
There's no good reason
to keep comic books and graphic novels

198
00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:07,296
out of K-12 education.

199
00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:08,976
They teach visually,

200
00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:11,760
they give our students
that remote control.

201
00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:15,216
The educational potential is there

202
00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:16,976
just waiting to be tapped

203
00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:18,680
by creative people like you.

204
00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:20,656
Thank you.

205
00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:23,760
(Applause)