Educating Youth Through Historical Fiction Graphic Novels

By Patricia Evans


Why should we be forced to deny to our children that history is full of ugliness and death. It is also filled with splendid tales of heroic deeds, and other moments that defined human beings. Perhaps historical fiction graphic novels would be better than our traditional history books when it comes to conveying this to young people.

These are basically comic books that utilize all the details historians and researchers know about certain events in history. Some details must be improvised, which is why they are regarded as fictional recollections. However, considering how our text books are written now, no amount of artists license could possible bend the truth any further than we already have.

More than novelists, however, as some of these young people grow up to create science fiction as fact. Many elements of basic physics have been woven into the stories of Marvel comics from the very beginning. As a young person begins to realize that some of this technology is actually being developed, they have a desire to be a part of that future.

Why should be lessons teaching our past be any less colorful and engaging than the stories predicting our future. In fact, if we want our future to be anything close to the technological dawn that comic books portray, then we better start really teaching history. Those who have been counted on for this duty have been letting mankind down for centuries.

If we want young people to get excited about learning their history, then it needs to be more than lists of names and dates to be memorized then forgotten. The illustration of events from the past need to show the reality of battle, and the passion of love in a way that our textbooks deny them. Kids today are not nearly as naive as we were.

Naturally, subject matter has to be taught in a manner that is age-appropriate, and should be changing as such as the students grow. This should not mean that the genocide of invading corporate interests from Europe on the native tribes living on every continent gets watered down into the story of Thanksgiving. It does not mean that we teach them to be ashamed to be descended from Europeans, but that they learn to take pride in changing how we treat each other on Planet Earth.

There are a number of researchers diligently rewriting the lies our generation was handed for the past ten thousand years. We are finally able to use terms like alien technology in the overall discussion of theory. If we are to rewrite the misinformation and denial of blatant facts that is the history of history, then we must do this now before we let down yet another generation of students.

It is not simply not knowing the past which condemns mankind to repeated patterns of behavior. You can memorize all the dates, names, battles, and events you want. If we cannot teach in a way that connects this random stream of data to where humans are now, explaining why the world is in the state that exists, then go ahead and get ready for the next Dark Age.




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