Comics in Education, 1972

Those of us old enough to retain the barest memory of what a university in the sixties involved - including the actual business of going to classes - might recall an era of the relevant or hip textbook. Many of these pieces, regardless of the content, sported covers with Da-Glo colors, moire patterns, futuristic (in a very dated way) typefaces, or other period gimmickry to show that this textbook, at least, had shaken off the starchiness of the self-important educational model and had embraced hipness. Not everyone chose to ask how (say) the associative property of mathematics could suddenly become hip after centuries of stodginess; folks mainly embraced the scenery as the occasion allowed.

Rarely, but certainly more often than today, comics would enter the equation. The educational/political series of paperback works such as Marx/Nuclear Power/Reich for Beginners owed considerably to such experimental textbooks of the sixties, as does the better known body of works known as the Cartoon Guide to History, The Cartoon Guide to Physics, and other volumes.

One piece from my collection, though it may not represent any kind of influence on the medium, demonstrates the educational application of comics as folks saw it circa 1972. It bears the title Contingency Management in Education & Other Equally Exciting Places (or I've Got Blisters on My Soul and Other Equally Exciting Places).

Behaviordelia

Dr. Richard W. Malott and the late Dr. Don Whaley authored a textbook titled Principles in Education, which, in spite of the headache-orange cover, moire pattern, futuristic lettering, and all such stuff on the cover, belonged in the category of fairly conventional textbooks. However, as a companion volume and study guide, Malott and the team of Pat and Stuart Hartlep put together Contingency Management in Education, taking advantage of the disposable character of many workbooks and study guides to deviate radically from conventional forms. Hence we encounter Behaviorman, Behaviorwoman, and Captain Contingency Management.

Existing evidence indicates that Behaviordelia texts appeared in psychology courses at Western Michigan University and North Texas State University. Both represented the behaviorist school much in vogue at the turn of the seventies.

Circa 1972, Skinner and Pavlov held the center of credibility in psychological theory, before a later age would find it convenient to resurrect discredited Freudian concepts such as repressed memory in order to invent new classes of abusive litigation and bad faddish therapy. Behaviorism, among the psychological disciplines, most attempts to use the vocabulary of hard science: It deals in inputs, outputs, and generally measurable phenomena without worrying so much about indefinable (and sometimes imaginary) psychological structures that may underlie problems. Behaviorism, in short, moves in a world of rewards and punishments. Given the tenor of the sixties, one may note with some surprise that nothing more esoteric had moved to the forefront of conventional psychology. Jung or Reich, after all, hit more themes that resonate with what seems most like the sixties to us today.

Nonetheless, in 1972 the names Skinner and Szasz held great weight. One might even have classified it as 'hip;' and much of what appeared in Contingency Management in Education sought to promote this image. Characters in the work even became visibly more hip as they assimilated behaviorist concepts.

The Troika of Pedagogues

Through most of the graphic content of the book, one of three educational guides directs the curriculum. These figures bear the names Behaviorman, Behaviorwoman, and Captain Contingency Management. For their roles in the tales of the deft application of behaviorist psychological theory, the characters remain somewhat interchangeable; nonetheless, this work kept the material from becoming too stale by rotating between three instructors.

These characters led readers though chapters with titles like "Confessions of a Beard Molester" (Behaviorwoman), "Confessions of a Candy Field" (Behaviorwoman), "Behaviorman Faces The Challenge of the Rotten Kids," "Behaviorman Gets on with It" (a sequel to the previous tale), and an unnamed Captain Contingency Management piece where said psychological hero guides a degree candidate through the dissertation process by holding a ransom that he sends to the Future Fascists of Amerika whenever the candidate fails to complete a chapter.

Does It Hold Water?

I would answer this with a qualified "yes." Yes, this approach to teaching concepts does serve a valid educational function, even if it wears the trappings of escapist literature. However, some factors tend to limit its ability to serve as an educational tool.

First, the production effort remains considerably higher than a conventional text piece. Note that in the age of the word processor little has made serial art or comics easier to produce. Even in an earlier publishing technology, one could find transcribers and proofreaders in numbers that considerably outnumbered those persons willing and able to execute an educational comic book.

Secondly, the format does not bear an efficient page-to-content ratio. Around 150 pages present content that pure-text approaches might thoroughly cover in 12 to 20 pages. The mnemonic advantages of a graphic approach require a considerably higher page count to accomplish, even if the ideas presented tend to stick better when shown by example rather than explained via tables.

Nonetheless, one can forgive these faults, particularly in light of Behaviordelia's dedicated effort to make the material interesting to students. The conventional text that accompanied Contingency Management in Education, after all, used the time-tested format with content-dense text. Each piece would serve to complement the other.

Furthermore, we have here the premise that education can (or should) include some element of fun. This idea never completely died out, even if it would give way to other approaches in the academy (such as the modern all-politics all the time contemporary variety). The continued existence of occasional pieces like the Cartoon Guide and the for Beginners series attests to a continuing faith in the approach.

Return to the Quarter Bin.
Email the author at [email protected].

Characters, products, and businesses listed on this page may be subject to copyrights and trademarks. Their mention here is not intended as a challenge to existing copyrights and trademarks.