"... I can even work your daily strip into my lesson plans. My class LOVES Arthur, and more recently, Oso. One of my girls is a struggling reader, and has a Pug named Whuffle. The girl hates to read; labors with it. But she ALWAYS reads the pug strips, no matter how hard the words-she'll look them all up. She prints them all out and takes them all home and puts them on her fridge. So it isn't just the laughs. Look at what you've done for a girl you've never met. She learns more words from you than she does from me, because she wants to understand the joke. I can't think of anything more important."
I'm not afraid to admit that that actually made me tear up a little bit. Thanks for that note, Suzanne!
Beautiful, Dave! You should be proud. That is a great story, and I'm glad you shared it. My wife is an elementary school teacher (1st grade) who is always looking for creative ways to teach... I'll make sure to mention this.
That is absolutely awesome! Having been a teachers aid for a couple of years and working with kids like that (albeit a bit older) that means a lot. It's sometimes nearly impossible to find the catalyst that would push them to success and it's a great feeling to be a part of it when it happens.
Oh yeah, if it hadn't been for Bill Watterson I never would have been able to read Roald Dahl for whom I owe my ability to read Judy Blume who trained me to read Terry Pratchett. Comics are the best thing in the world for new readers and we who learned to read from them owe cartoonists a debt of gratitude! (Which is why I didn't send this out with a bunch of fake typos. Oh, but the urge was strong!)
That is wonderful! However, now you've got the little girl looking up what a carnie is. Still, she's gonna find out someday...
Dang it, man. Now I've got something in my eye.
I love the story about the student, and I also get a warm fuzzy from the fact that (once again) someone became a hero just for doing what they do and doing it well. Good on you, mate.
I supposedly only learned to read because my mother refused to keep reading Mortadelo y Filemón [wikipedia.org] to me.
Oso is perfect as a student incentive. Ever since I've discovered Sheldon at last summer's Comic con in San Diego, I've worn my Oso and Flaco buttons on my teacher lanyard.
When I lost my Oso button Dylan, one of my students, seemed really unhappy. It seems he really liked the idea of Oso being "God's little weirdo" (I think Dylan sees himself as a weirdo, too).
It was an opening to a discussion about Sheldon and I began to print out Oso strips just for Dylan. When I do this, Dylan runs around the playground getting everyone to read them. Oso brightens this kid's day like nothing else does.
Dylan has a lot of bad days. Being the only child of a single mom and a dad in Hawaii (whom he just met last summer and hadn't known for the first eight years of life) he spends a lot of time at school either in class or daycare. Dylan seems to be the original Mr. Gloom. Give him an Oso, though, and he brightens up tremendously. He and his mom are really close and the Oso strips are something special he can share with her.
Our printer at school has been on the fritz and it's been a sincere tragedy that I haven't been able to print out the latest ones. I can hardly wait to get back on Monday as it seems we have a whole new Oso story...Dylan will be excited!
Dylan doesn't know it yet, but this summer at Comic Con I'm buying him the whole Sheldon series and I want Dave to draw an Oso in the cover of one of the books. Since I work day care as well as teach, I really know Dylan well and figure this isn't an inappropriate gift. I think I also want to buy a set for our school library.
Since there isn't a Oso shirt yet, I'm thinking of making Dylan one, using those laser printer iron ons. (I'm only thinking about it - I haven't figured out the copy right issues, but do plan to ask before I print).
I've been meaning to write to you about Dylan...I think you under estimate how this strip can reach out to kids. It's incredible.
Lee Nelson
BTW - One of my students loves to talk "french": she knows one whole word: squee! Now, she loves the Flaco strips...but that's another story...
Are you kidding Dave? You never realized the power of graphic novels/aka comics?
I pretty much taught myself to read from the Sunday funnies, various sci-fi pulp fiction (such as Amazing Stories) and Tarzan comic books (dad used to subscribe to them). Back then there was no kindergarten and I hit the first grade already reading at the fifth grade level. It was also reading those Classics Illustrated comics that began my love of classic literature.
I have been a reading fiend ever since. Reading a wide variety of literature from Bulfinch's Mythology to comics to Shakespeare to the pulps to Chaucer to The Compleate Sherlock Holmes probably helped me pass the entrance test for Mensa.
Well-drafted and well-written comics such as yours have a far-reaching impact on the human species. When I was overseas I found American comics translated into pretty much every language. Charles Schultz probably did more to spread the English language than anyone as Peanuts was a world-wide hit.
I volunteer as a replacement in English as a second language classes here, and also in adult literacy classes. In both of them I use comics to help get the point across. In comics they SEE the situation and read about it as well. Improves comprehension and learning. Why do you think the old standard Fun With Dick and Jane was illustrated?
Being a great cartoonist such as yourself is a gift. Enjoy it. Think of all those you have helped in some fashion or another and never known it.
All of us thank you.
Well, to be honest, my first Masters degree was research into how 18th Century cartoons help raise the overall literacy rate of England.
(You can read the thesis here [worldcat.org].)
But...I guess...that was a very academic look at the matter. Hearing *my* cartoons are helping someone learn to read makes it a much more emotional thing.
That it does.
The favorite characters of your strip for my Spanish speaking students are of course Bear and Skinny, by the way. Whenever Flaco gets up to some derring-do they are quite excited. Both Oso and Flaco always remind them of somebody back home. Oso apparently reminds them Bud Spencer, and Flaco reminds them of Terrence Hill of the "Trinity" spaghetti western/comedies.
