Comics Journalism and Education Reform


A comics journalist and an assistant professor walk into a bar.

What'll ya have? asks the barkeep.

"Pictures of Reformtinis," says the journalist.

"A panel of Education Fizzes" responds the professor.

The barkeep frowns, "Okay, but you'll end up in the gutter."
I know the punchline could be better . . .

Education reform is no joke so Adam Bessie, assistant professor at Diablo Valley College, and Dan Archer, comics journalist, took on the education reform movement in their interactive comic featured at TruthOut.org. The first episode, The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum: The High Price of Education Reform and second episode, Murky Waters: The Education Debate in New Orleans take on the system while trying to make sense of how we teach our students.

But before you click on the links -- it gets even better.

Bessie and Archer designed their visual essay as a fully functional interactive comic with built in links to all their sources. Take a minute to check it out, it's really very informative and comic geek chic.

Are you an education major? What do you know about education reform? Did high school serve you well? How would you improve the K-12 experience for both students and teachers?

What do you think of comics journalism? Do you like its interactivity? Does it encourage you to read?

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