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I agree with Dux, I have witnessed the same with fellow teachers among the less fortunate classes. Our obversations are that many children are raised (or baby sat) by the tv sets. Unfortunately, unlike the fifties/sixties when the 4:00 to 6:00 tv programmation was reserved for kid-friendly shows (remember Mickey Mouse Club, Sesame Street, Mr Rogers...), it has been replaced by Oprah, Ricky Lake, Judge Judy, Dr. Phil, Charlie Rose) each trying to outdo themselves with gorier and weirder stories of family disasters & disruption.<BR>
There is a huge difference in the "peace level" and the "education level" (i.e. the basic knowledge base) of my students from 20 years ago to now - for the worse<BR>Comics can be a powerful tool to help students learn on their own if the parents are not involved - observations made in the USA.<BR>
Thank you, L <BR><BR>From: dux@ca.rr.com<BR>CC: notebook@wiljes.de<BR>To: dcml@nafsk.se; abeenget@online.no; cord@wiljes.de; TheGuy@drawson.com<BR>Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 13:44:28 +0000<BR>Subject: [SPG,Suspected,pattern=3.60]Re: Disney Sales<BR><BR><PRE>Unfortunately, the ever-increasing electronic takeover of our kids' world will not allow </PRE><PRE>comics (especially Disney comics) to be around for many more years. At least in the U.S.A.<BR> <BR>Cord Wiljes <cord@wiljes.de> wrote: <BR>I remember a study in which Chinese native speakers read Chinese Texts to<BR>very young (<1y) children. Later in life the children were able to speak<BR>Chinese sounds which were not part of their own language, even though they<BR>never learned Chinese. When the same experiment was repeated with records<BR>instead of human readers no effect was found. So the human interaction<BR>(emotion!) seems to be absolutely essential for motivation and learning even<BR>(or especially) at this young age.<BR> <BR>I have repeatedly heard from adults who had never read comic books in their<BR>own childhood that they had serious problems reading comics now because they<BR>did not know where to start or how to preceed. They had not learned the<BR>"language" of comics at an early age.<BR> <BR>I believe comics are very good source of reading material for children because they have pictures which is very important, the feature recognizable characters, and they have the appeal of "not just for kids" which marks most great childrens' books. I have read Donald Duck and Asterix to the children of friends and they liked it very much. And once the children start learning to read you can alternate: The adult reads the first panel and the child the second one.<BR> <BR>I also noticed how much children, even at the youngest age, recognize and appreciate quality. Not only do they instinctively prefer Barks' stories over others' but they even know which Barks stories they like best. They are very good critics.<BR>Cord <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR></PRE> </body>
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