Comic Books that Educate

Myth? Unbelievable? Impossible? Of course not. One of the most recent trends that has brought education and entertainment together is the emergence of the educational comic book.

It all began way back in 1949 when Hutchinson’s experimented with a weekly comic called Puck, which was centred about a school curriculum. At the time, most teachers found that the comics had increased motivation and participation levels among students. However, there was also the conservative lot who actually kvetched about educational comic books oversimplifying learning. Since then, the educational comic book has metamorphosed through various avatars including Superman language arts workbooks and many others to gradually gain grudging acceptance in educational circles.

Truth be told, most people, particularly children, think in images and this is why they are drawn to comics, educational or not. With regard to education, comic books can be particularly useful because they help ease the cognitive burden plain text places on a learner. While students may spend many minutes reading a few paragraphs on the water cycle, a simple graphical representation of the same phenomenon explains the process in seconds. Such is the power of the medium.

Unlike other visual mediums like movies and animation, comic books provide a sense of visual permanence. Simply put, this means that specific images are always easily available to the learner allowing the learning to be self-paced.

The most important aspect of educational comic books is that they have the potential to make learning pleasurable in stark contrast to the boring textbooks that most children have to put up with. As a result, studying becomes less of a burden.

While guides, question sets and poorly compiled study notes have become a booming industry to boost examination results, educational comic books pose parents and students with a qualitatively better option.

Will educational comic books take off? That’s anybody’s guess right now!

Compulsive studying versus Encouraging learning

Imagine- A typical scene at home before school feedback and assessment time. When the mother is coaxing her child to do his homework. Struggling by all means to get him to study and revise. Trying it all - persuading, negotiating, shouting, threatening and sweating it out to get him to sit on his desk, but to no avail. The stress levels are high, so are the sound levels arising out of the confrontation. The child has a strong resolve. He is adamant - come what may, no one is going to succeed in getting him to sit and learn. He has a far more important agenda – playing. How can anything else come in the way? How can he allow study to interrupt his precious play time? Studying just doesn’t figure in his scheme of things.

Familiar sight, isn’t it? There is a sense of desperation on both ends. While the child is exercising all his defiance, the mother is left feeling helpless and in extreme anxiety. This is without doubt a consequence of studying which feels compulsive: Rigid, unbending and strict. It’s got to be done in a certain way, no choice given there.

Compare that to a diverse learning pattern. Where learning is encouraged by implementing an innovative and efficient way of teaching. Through educational content which is enjoyable and everlasting. Whereby the student is self-motivated to learn. Whereby self-learning becomes a new found way of gaining knowledge.

Mexus Education has pioneered a soon to be introduced edutainment tool, a revolution in the education scenario. So there are no more quarrels at the desk. So that learning is encouraged to be enjoyed.

Innovation in NCERT curriculum

It is commonly said that ‘Familiarity brings content’! True. But with all due respect to whoever quoted it, this too is also a well-known maxim - ‘If you do not change, you can become extinct’!

Now this can become a debatable situation. On one side, it is easy and convenient to tread on the known path and to swim in safe waters. To continue doing what has been believed and done for even aeons together.
While on the other hand, in order to bring in change, there is always the fear of the unknown, the skepticism of the concealed and the reluctance of getting out of the comfort zone.
Herein lies the difference between complacency and risk-taking. The difference between stagnation and movement.

Mexus Education firmly opines that innovation stems from the necessity to transform. The desire for change, the compulsive rejection of the old and the craving for the new. When there is scope to improve, why tolerate the existing? Why make do with the ordinary when the extraordinary is attainable?

Adopting this philosophy is the cornerstone of Mexus Education and its fundamentals.
And this has led Mexus Education to revolutionise the NCERT curriculum. To present it in a manner which has not only challenged the conventional, but also thrown open a whole new array of learning methods.

What follows is only the outcome of taking the risk, of plunging into unknown waters!