I guess if you hang around long enough, someone will put you on their board. I’m certainly not there yet, but I have been named to my first national steering committee– this one for the National Association of Comics Art Educators. The mission– to promote awareness of the art of comics in classrooms.

I’d used them as a resource a couple of times before. When I was researching my LEARN article on comics as a teaching tool, I corresponded with James Sturm, who is the author of the tremendous The Golem’s Mighty Swing, as well as one of the co-founders of NACAE. His focus seems to have been creation of comics art curricula at the higher ed level, particularly on a programmatic level. I also went back and forth with one of their board members, Scott McCloud, whose work I think I’ve pimped sufficiently in this blog.

While some of the past efforts seemed geared more towards higher ed, I’m on board to provide the perspective of a K-12 educator. The next phase of NACAE’s mission is to make comics more pervasive in school media centers around the country. I owe thanks to Ben Towle, who scouted me out and vetted me for the project (and I’m still not really sure how it happened, but I’m not complaining at all).

I am, of course, extremely excited, because I really can’t convey the depth of my gratitude to the comics industry for making me the reader I am today. Comics stimulated a deep and lifelong interest in reading for me, helped me acquire a ridiculous amount of vocabulary, and now provide me not only a wonderful hobby, but a shared vocabulary into the secret society of comics readers. (And if you believe we’re not a secret society, you’re soooo wrong. I’m out in public, but you’d be amazed at how many people I know quietly talk with great nostalgia about the comics they read growing up. Isn’t it amazing that a society that claims to put such a premium on reading would stigmatize such a huge literary industry?)

So, if you are one of the many quiet proponents, I hope you will check out NACAE’s website, and you can hop on their message boards under a pseudonym if you have something to add about the teaching of comics but aren’t quite willing to out yourself as a comics fan.

Notes for NACAE:
Development of curriculum materials for schools? Possible integration into learning objects models? See MERLOT as possible indexing for open-source materials.

McCloud’s texts are comics-form textbooks for the comics industry. Can/should learning materials be presented as such?

Broad literacy aside, what are some specific things comics can be used to teach? Supposing a teacher has not read any comics and picks up just any old comic book, what can we assume they might do with that comic in a classroom? McCloud’s texts probably provide insight but could be built upon.

What are some state and national standards that one might use comics to address?