| Last Updated: Jan 20th, 2009 - 19:56:46
Edu-Toons - Review
By Cynthia Kirkeby
Jun 22, 2008, 09:02 PST
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Edu-toons: Education in America is a book of political cartoons created by Arnie Bianco and Illustrated by Fred Falk. The book is broken into six sections: Kids, Politics, Teacher Training, Funding, Parents and Families, and Significant Dates in Education. These cartoons can be used to explore some of the issues related to current affairs in social studies classes, in conjunction with the political cartoons commonly found in newspapers, as well as in our Political Cartoon section created in conjunction with Cagle Cartoon.
All of the cartoons have some relationship to school, so there is a very definite slant on content and viewpoint. The section on Kids covers issues such as No Child Left Behind and Books and Literacy.
Section two is on Politics. It covers issues such as A Testing Revolt, The Freedom of Information Act as it pertains to slander suits on campus, and Gallup Poll Ratings.
Kids and Classrooms, the third section, has some issues the kids can definitely relate to in school. Teen Pregnancy, Ritalin and other ADHD Drugs, Gender Stereotypes, and Invisible Kids are just a few of the topics covered. These are sure to spark lively debate in the class.
Teachers and Teacher Training is a surprising deep section that takes a look inside the world of teachers. In some cases these seem to be more of a rant about all the things teachers have to endure in a broken system. I'm not sure that all of them are very applicable to teaching kids about current affairs and issues related to their lives. These might well be good for a college level English course for teachers as a jumping off point for essays.
Relative to the teacher's section, Section 5 on Parents and Families is light. It only covers a few topics, including Parent Teacher Night, Two Income families, and Homework. I would have liked to see the depth of the 4th and 5th section reversed.
The final section is on Significant Historical Dates as they relate to school. Some of these are rather intriguing, such as Old Satan Deluder Laws, which required children to learn to read the Bible in order to ward off the devil, and the cartoon on John Dewey, who moved schools from a rigid military basis to a more flexible child-centered approach. Some of these are interesting, while others I found lackluster at best.
All in all I think that Edu-toons might be an interesting book to keep around for a different twist on social studies from time to time. There are definitely quite a few cartoons that would catch the students' attention and motivate them to participate in class.
ClassBrain's Political Cartoon Section
Be sure to check out The ClassBrain Political Cartoon section in the Teens section for topical current event cartoons by some of the leading cartoonists in the world.
© Copyright 2008 by Classbrain.com
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