What is the role of Anime/Manga in education? Is there even a role for it? How could it be incorporated into a classroom? Is there a way that I can incorporate anime and manga into the classroom that would help me reach an entirely new generation of students? Much like how the Wii wasn't even designed with the core gamers in mind, could anime and manga reach into the void of English students who hold a strong grudge against the subject and flip their views on the subject? What societal views would I have to tackle before there could even be any mention of anime and manga in the classroom? These are questions that I, both as an otaku and an educator, think about constantly. I spend a good majority of my day (read: planning period) thinking about ways that I could combine the two things that I love.
The name is Mr. Colgate. That's right, first name Mister, last name Colgate. I no longer have a first name, for I am an educator. I will admit that I'm not yet a fully certified teacher, but I'm getting close. I'm currently two months away from my Master of Arts in Teaching and my initial teaching certification. Along with the field work that we partake in, the teaching candidates at the University of Louisville are also involved in learning teaching theory. What I'm going to do here, in this blog, article, feature, what-have-you, is take anime/manga and try to discover how it could be incorporated into the classroom. Ready? 3, 2, 1, Let's Jam.
Manga
Manga is not something that one would have to go to great lengths to find an application on a classroom. It is still, for all intents and purposes, a book. It has characters, setting, plot, conflict, and any other part of a book one could think of. Some people might say, "but, Mr. Colgate, where are the words?" I would but simply ask you, what are words? Before you could answer my question, I would respond for you in the form of a question: "Is not a word in a book simply ink on a piece of paper that is meant to represent something? When this ink is set in a certain way on a piece of paper, does it not become something which evokes a response from the person viewing it? How then can we say that a picture is 'less-than' prose?" As the old adage goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words."
Let us think about its application. One of the main focuses of an English classroom is getting students to read. The more you read, the better of a reader you are, the better you are at identifying different textual elements (theme, conflict, setting, etc.), and the better your comprehension skills are. The application of manga is fairly simple at the surface level: let students read manga in place of pure prose texts. Students can indeed become better readers by reading manga, it can help them identify textual elements (might even be easier to do so when the wordy descriptions are taken out of the equation), and students can comprehend a little better.
In the classroom I'm currently teaching, here are a few ways I am currently, and could possibly be, incorporating manga. When students come into the room, they are expected to read for a set amount of time (generally 15-20 minutes) before the lesson starts. The reading that students do here is part of the Independent Reading Project, in which students are expected to read 4 books (at least 125 pages per book) throughout the semester. This is a place where manga can easily be incorporated, and it's something that we already engage in with students. Students have the option of reading 3 volumes of manga in place of a prose book. Though our selection isn't really varied right now (we have Evangelion, and that's it), the student response to it has been good.
Struggling readers. This is probably the most important place that manga could appear in. Manga is the saint for struggling readers all over the nation, and there’s research that suggests a reason for it. Now, childhood brain development, the way I understand it, revolves around a use-it-or-lose-it school of thought. If you don’t utilize certain brain processes as it’s developing, the brain will determine the synapses responsible for those processes as irrelevant and get rid of them. This accounts for the fact that as people grow older, they lose the ability to hear and pronounce certain phonemes (think of the click languages in Africa). Now, as kids grow up, we are given all sorts of visual stimuli, be it movies, video games, or comics. Since we are given all of that stimuli, research (I have no sources, sorry) suggests that we lose the capacity to create the visuals within ourselves; we lose the capacity to imagine. So when we read, we cannot visualize the images being conveyed by text. This is where reading manga comes in.
By reading manga, struggling readers do not need to worry about creating an image in their head. It is done for them. Many readers, from personal experience, get hung up on the details that prose text presents. Since they lack the ability to competently picture what the prose is suggesting, they tend to get hung up on what most readers take for granted. They sacrifice understanding other important textual elements to try and get a grasp on the images portrayed.
A problem that people pose with this is that manga doesn't include “great books”. This is, of course, entirely untrue, but let us explore it for the sake of argument. Let's start with an argument of definition, namely, “What is a 'great book'?” Who determines that something is better than the other options out there? Rather than looking at the presentation and things like that, we should look rather at the themes. Is it well written? Doesn't really matter. Twilight, a book that I hold an incredible distaste for, has created an entire new generation of readers. Is it a great book? I'll let you decide on that. Do kids read it and learn from it? Certainly. In the world of manga, we have many adaptations and reformulations of “great books”, and many series that could very easily be defined as “great”. Read Monster, and tell me that you didn't find anything worth-while or redeeming about it, and I will stand corrected.
Manga doesn't have to solely be a tool to help struggling readers. There is an activity I have planned for a class involving manga, but I've not been able to teach it yet (I will one day, I swear!). Students will take a page of manga, maybe even a single frame, and write out the text that the images convey, the details that would turn this page into pure prose. This little exercise, though, can be used to increase the reading and writing abilities of all kinds of students.
Now, let's think of this the other way around: turning words into manga. One of the best ways to show mastery over material is to change it into another form: writing a poem about The Great Gatsby, Writing Monster out as prose, or even turning a book into a manga. We call this text reformulation, and it's not even English-centric. It's something that could work in almost every subject. You could allow students to create a history of the world- manga style, you could draw a conversation between two people speaking a foreign language, or you can even allow students to create a manga version of a chemical reaction (though this will take some AMAZING creative ability).
I feel that I've talked enough about manga, though, so let's move on to...
Anime
Luckily for you, the anime section will be a lot shorter than the manga section since most of the things I would normally include here has already been covered. That being said, anime does have its uses in the classroom.
Think about any episode of anime you've watched recently. Chances are, it was subtitled. Just think about it; how many words did you read? How fast did you read? How quickly did you need to comprehend what was being said? Just think about the applications this could have for struggling readers in the classroom. Granted, most of them might say, “Whatev, man, anime be stoopid” (trust me, they do talk like that), but there might still be a few we can reach through this method.
Let's talk again about the text reformulation idea. What better way to illustrate to students what you mean by text reformulation than by showing them Gankustuou, or Romeo X Juliet, or the World Masterpiece Theater series (not sure if that's the actual name). These should not be in any way used in place of the original books, due to some discrepancies made for TV's sake, but they can still be great educational tools.
Certain animes can be used in some cultural studies classrooms to teach about culture. Think of Utena and how it shows examples of shadow play and takarazuka theater; it's perfect for a drama or theater class.
Well, my cat has nestled herself into my lap, and has begun begging for pets. This feline alarm clock alerts me now that it is time to stop typing, but I hope you'll take some of this into consideration. Anime/manga is not something sole for the fan; it can be a great educational tool if utilized correctly.
Let me leave you with some questions: How would you feel if anime/manga was introduced into the curriculum at your school? If it were simply available? Would you be any more invested in the school work? What other ideas do you have for how it could be incorporated?
~ Dustin Colgate (Baku_Sensei) is a student teacher in Louisville, Ky. He has a B.A in English, and is currently pursuing his Masters in Teaching.
Uh...yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure I'd want to substitute say, Tezuka for Milton, no matter how great Tezuka is. My idea of literature is Hugo, Dickens, Chaucer, Milton, Poe, Chopin, Bradbury, Goethe, Shakespeare, Tolkien, Dumas.... Not Kubo, Shirow, Nightow, etc. They may write good stories, but to me, it's not "literature." I'm a bit conflicted, because while I believe that those stories can be just as good, and I love reading manga, I'm also a literary snob. I nearly wrote off my college classical literature professor when she compared Homer to the sitcom Friends. I mean, that was enough for me to go "What the hell is this woman talking about?" and nearly decide she didn't have anything real to teach me. To be fair (to me) the comparison was really stupid anyway; I ended up not thinking a whole lot of her teaching skills overall by the end of that course (meaning, she seemed knowledgeable enough, but was terrible at teaching).
On the other hand, I think a study of visual literature would be great, on its own. And if someone wanted to compare the different versions of Romeo and Juliet, then there's no reason at all why the manga or anime version shouldn't be included along with the ballet, Baz Luhrmann, West Side Story, Cukor, and Zeffirelli.
So the lit snob in me wants to say "No freakin' way." But the side of me that knows manga can tell good stories just as well as a novel wants to agree with you. But in teaching a class, at least beyond jr. high level, I would never substitute in a manga for a novel the kids should be reading. I wouldn't teach a manga or manga series.
But I do applaud the effort to encourage reading and help those who have problems reading using manga, which is obviously a lighter read than plowing through pages of tiny words. Anyway, I'm obviously old fashioned when it comes to education, being learned, or being cultural...that a classical education is important. I'm way too young to be such an old fogey about that sort of thing, but I am anyway.
Kudos to Baku_Sensei... Great lesson!
That being said, it's much easier to teach them the skills they need to be literate if the book is not something that professionals the world 'round spend years analyzing. They would get so hung up on minute details they're struggling with that they would fail to achieve the larger goals of the lesson/sequence/unit. A mentor teacher once said to me, and I believe whole heartedly in these words, "I teach literacy, not literature. My kids need to know how to read and write effectively before I can teach them texts."
Going along with that, I'm with you, I'll never teach manga. I will encourage students to read it, and I may encourage a class of repeaters or a RAMP UP class to read a graphic novelized version of a "great book", but I mostly reserve it for independent reading time. This is mainly where we try and get students to appreciate literature, but the students care more about a story than they care about how rich the text is. Once again, this is completely different in college, where you're looking from.
The last thing I want to touch on, as my beautiful fiance and I discussed (do I get points for that, Lan?), is the "canon". The canon is something that is kinda going out the door in K-12 education. While we still try to teach pieces of the canon that we know students will enjoy, an increasingly diverse and culturally new student body has lost the connection with the canon that once made it relevant. Students do not care to read Hawthorne; they would rather read Stephanie Meyer, Paul Langan, and Jodi Picoult, readers who speak to the current concerns and cultures of students.
I think I got everything I wanted to hit on... Ah, one more thing, but completely unrelated. After reading over my submission, I kinda regret putting it up. Parts of it are under-developed, and I've counted two proof-reading errors... silly me.
Well good luck with that. However i can guarantee you will most likely only get responses, by the people who can decided this kind of thing, like "What, you want them to read comic books instead of Shakespeare? HAHAHAHA". Sadly ignorance of what we don't know, and a general dislike to change things keeps most people from ever exploring alternate ideas like this. In a world where all someone needs to do is scream "Would someone think of the children" and everyone just gets in line and backs what ever they say, i for see a rather large up hill battle for ya. Best of luck to ya though.
Nice article btw baku.
I could get into this idea. Now I wish I had a bunch of kids to teach so I could try putting together a curriculum. Read a graphic novel to introduce some concepts, read a prose novel to illustrate them further, repeat until the year ends. :D
@gia: I actually like that idea. I might just try to do that if the curriculum has room for it. Unfortunately, we're pretty much given a list saying "Teach this and nothing else!" near the beginning of the school year.
@Baku_Sensei:
I'm sorry, yeah, I understood that you were referring to the kiddies and not college. I didn't mean for it to come across otherwise. :)
I wonder.....
By essentially saying "you're too stupid to get this, so we'll dumb it down for you," is that not part of the problem? If you don't push those kids, they won't go anywhere. I'm not saying to hold them to the same standards as you would, to use the example you gave, AP students, but is the solution to lower the quality of their education down to their "level"? Why not push them to go beyond that? At my HS, it was a matter of...AP students read these books, non-AP students read some of those, and some others. I remember that the regular class was reading Of Mice and Men, which is a book the AP class never read; unfortunately I can't recall what we read instead. An extra Shakespeare play, maybe? Or maybe they read that instead of Grapes of Wrath. The particular isn't important. They were still reading a "classic." Just not whatever more advanced one we were reading.
I was astounded once, when talking to someone who was starting teaching.... He turned in his uh...what do you call it. Syllabus, I guess, for his HS class, and they basically told him "Hey, why are these books on here? Just read this standard stuff. Don't give them anymore." He was discouraged from teaching more advanced books. And I just went "Wow, is that really what it's come to? That they don't even want you to bother?"
The whole thing is so sad to me, because I would have been in bliss if I had be able to get a real classical education. I know a lot of people think it's a bunch of useless nonsense, but it forms you as a person, and without it, you're just another sheep. Sorry, that's a little bleak and possibly insulting; I don't mean it to be. As it was, I went to HS in a small town and had very few options. Our arts were limited to band and theatre, foreign languages to Spanish.... I'm fortunate that my school offered up to Calculus for math, and I was able to choose AP/honors classes for nearly every subject. I minored in English in college, and the wealth of things I could learn (meaning specialized classes) absolutely delighted me. That I could take an entire class on Shakespeare, or Milton, or ancient Greek literature...it was heaven.
Though honestly.... As much as I complain about people reading base literature like Twilight or something...at least they're fucking reading. I keep telling myself that to make myself feel better. :) But, and I would think you'd agree, there are plenty older texts out there that still speak to today's issues. It's all history in a way, and history does repeat itself, after all. I mean, the idea that society turns otherwise good people to crime still exists, though the sewer system in Paris has had significant changes (see: Les Miserables); and Joseph Campbell regurgitates Aristotle.
And on and on, it just goes around in a circle, really. I agree with you, but it makes me said, and I wonder if simply lowering the level is really the most helpful thing to do.
One thing you imply there is that by not making these students read the canon, I am destroying the quality of their education. The education is still fine. They sill learn the things that other students learn, but they don't go home feeling dejected every day because they don't know the meaning of "bewilderment" of some other word. Teachers also do not have the time to teach a book in-depth enough that the language will be in the student's zone of proximal development. We have to teach grammar, writing forms, persuasion, argument, give students time to write, give them time to read... in the end, we're left with very little time, at least at my current placement.
Once more, also, what I'm proposing is not to replace every book taught in the class with manga. The students are still taught Of Mice and Men, The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, etc. But most students are given a requirement to read on their own, and I propose manga could take the place of that.
Another thing implied is that reading graphic novels and manga is not challenging for students. The sad truth of the matter is this: it doesn't matter what grade you're teaching, be it freshmen or seniors. Students can and will come to you on an extremely low reading level. I have kids in my 11th grade class who read at a 3rd grade level. 3rd grade! Should I tell them, "I'm sorry, but you fail because you're not able to read The Crucible with the same level of understanding that the other students have"? Or should I give this student something that is much more accessible to him/her, but is still challenging? See, the challenge in literature does not lie solely in the difficulty of the language. It also lies in how deep the themes are, how complicated the plot is, how complex the characters are. Any book can be intellectually stimulating and challenging without being weighed down by rich and flowery language.
The students I work with do not care about literature. They just don't. They care about their phones, their jobs, their baby daddy's (their words, not mine), their friends, and how quickly they can get out of school. Even my honors kids, who are on the road to college, told me that they didn't care to read The Great Gatsby, that they didn't read The Great Gatsby, and asked if we could do Twilight. Shall I continue to do these kids a disservice by teaching literature that they do not care about, or should I look for new ways to bring them in? I mean, in the end, it depends on the students you're working with. I, myself, am working at a very poor, very urban school, so my views on the subject are probably very different that yours are.
Also, one more thing, it's not that they don't want you to bother, for the most part. I'm sure that there are some administrations who have completely lost faith in their students, but for the most part, we're not allowed to add books to the curriculum because they want a set academic plan throughout the school.
It's not a dumbing down of the curriculum, but rather an extending of the accessibility of texts.
Yeah, I believe I understand what you're saying. It just makes me really sad. Every time I think about society going in that direction, I get kind of depressed. My husband said something along the lines of "Yeah, but we didn't care about that kind of literature either until we were out of school." So then I reminded him that I read Les Miserables in its entirety when I was 15, of my own will, and it instantly became one of my favorite books. I also freely read Goethe's Faust while I was in HS. And I read every book I had to for classes except one - Crime and Punishment, which was assigned during the last week of my SR year, and I think only one person in class bothered to read any of it. I never got past the first chapter.
THAT is so freakin' sad. Seriously. I really want to say "You damn well should teach them even the shit they don't care about." Because you don't go through life only getting to do the things you want or that are fun. And there's no reason to let them think otherwise. But I think what you are saying, is that if you push stuff at them that they don't want to read, it will kill any love for reading they might have had. Which is understandable. Better they read bad literature than no literature at all. I wish I could say I truly believe that, but I don't want to live in a society where people think George Lucas created the Homeric odyssey (not saying anyone does, just using an easy example; it's like kids going "Oh, so and so random pop singer wrote this kick ass song!" When it was really written 50 years ago by someone with far greater musical talent.). One of my greatest fears is that the classics and classical education will just...die out. That the Stephanie Meyers and Laurell K Hamiltons will replace the Louisa May Alcotts and the Mary Shelleys. That's bleak. :( It's like when I hear my geekier friends go on and on about Joseph's Campbell's writings on a hero's journey (etc), and I go.... "Yeah, I already read that. It was by this guy named Aristotle."
Thank you for the insight regarding the type of school you work at, because you are right, my school was very different. We generally excelled academically in our district. It was a small school (I graduated in a class of 52), and I had limited choices, but we did have good teachers there (for the most part; I was fortunate enough to get the good math teacher all 4 years, and not the one who apparently wasn't teaching anyone anything). Definitely didn't have the sort of problems a school like yours would have. Actually, my SR English teacher was so demanding that several students opted out of taking her class by going to a nearby community college to get dual credit instead.
By the way.... There was one book in my English class that everyone read, even the guys who never read any of the books. And not only did we all read it, we all finished it within 24 hours. Our teacher handed it to us, we devoured it, and when she set aside some time for us to read it the next day, we all declared that we had already finished the book, which took her quite by surprise. The book was Night, by Elie Wiesel.
Anyway..... Thanks for taking the time to discuss this with me. :)