Backlash In Germany On School’s Use of Comic Book To Teach On Holocaust

I'm getting a lot of questions about this story via e-mail, and I think even though they don't all reference it they're all probably based on this video from CNN International. Apparently, there's a bit of a backlash against the comic book being distributed by the Anne Frank Center into some German schools. It's sort of delicate issue even before you add in the political and personal weight of the Holocaust. Comics can be light on facts and exhibit the same shortcomings in terms of quality and effectiveness that any book can. They're not an unfit teaching tool because of the medium for any subject, depending on the quality of the material and the use to which it's put in the classroom. Comics don't even have to be held to a rigorous standard of thoroughness, if they're not being used that way. When I was in school back in 1888 they used other media (semaphore, steam-powered puppetry) to introduce kids to a new work of literature or a new historical subject. It didn't serve as a substitute for that material.

Neil Gaiman says the same thing more eloquently.

Also, I hadn't known that Dave Sim's other new project touched on the Holocaust.
 
posted 9:07 am PST | Permalink
 

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