©
Log McQuaig
Cartoonist • Humourist •
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To Eradicate Bullying -
cartooning works!
cartooning works!
One of the few upsides of conflict is it makes excellent fodder for Cartooning and humour. A cartoon narrative always hangs on a conflict and usually one from real life.
Log inspires students to talk, write and draw
not about what’s easy in their lives but about what is hard. Using student’s
own stories about bullying experiences Log encourages them to describe, draw and resolve
conflict in a sequenced cartoon storyline, using insight, compassion and humour.
This
workshop offers students simple drawing and writing techniques
to help them express feelings, in pictures and words,
through their own cartoon stories.
Log's Message:
Your story matters, we value it. Tell us your story!
to help them express feelings, in pictures and words,
through their own cartoon stories.
Log's Message:
Your story matters, we value it. Tell us your story!
There are some valuable benefits to telling
your own story in cartoon form:
You build self-respect by developing a skill,
by drawing better and by writing and thinking
of funnier stories. As an added bonus,
you may even earn the approval of friends
– or your own approval -
by making people laugh. Log urges students
to keep their cartoon stories funny but tasteful,
so the story gets told,people respect you
and no one’s getting hurt!
***
Log's theory of cartooning:
Three Ways Seeds Travel...
I have long believed that Cartooning is the universal language of young people. After visits to hundreds of schools, I’ve seen that a student who has difficulty in more traditional academic areas may find his or her greatest satisfaction in the drawing of cartoons.
But cartoons have a bad name. They are synonymous with frivolity, distraction and time wasting.
What we commonly hear is that we must cover more and more curriculum the student needs to cope with the modern world. Well, here’s the bad news: you can teach kids the information they need to cope, but how much do they remember? Let’s face it – much of what we all learned in school we have forgotten.
To prove my point, just last night, I asked several friends if they could remember one thing they studied in grade six. I even helped them along by prompting them with science questions like, “Name three ways in which seeds travel”.
Only two of the seven could answer correctly and even the two that could, didn’t care. The only thing they remembered was that some of them hated gym.
What if all we ultimately remember from our formal education is how we felt about learning at any given time? (Three years of junior high school boils down to – the years I had a crush on Edwina Smelt and hated biology!)
That’s where cartoons come in. They are a powerful learning tool – not because they are full of valuable information, but because, for some bizarre, primitive, inexplicable reason – kids feel good about cartoons. Why not use what they feel good about to get them to feel good about learning, about creating, about school – about themselves.
But cartoons have a bad name. They are synonymous with frivolity, distraction and time wasting.
What we commonly hear is that we must cover more and more curriculum the student needs to cope with the modern world. Well, here’s the bad news: you can teach kids the information they need to cope, but how much do they remember? Let’s face it – much of what we all learned in school we have forgotten.
To prove my point, just last night, I asked several friends if they could remember one thing they studied in grade six. I even helped them along by prompting them with science questions like, “Name three ways in which seeds travel”.
Only two of the seven could answer correctly and even the two that could, didn’t care. The only thing they remembered was that some of them hated gym.
What if all we ultimately remember from our formal education is how we felt about learning at any given time? (Three years of junior high school boils down to – the years I had a crush on Edwina Smelt and hated biology!)
That’s where cartoons come in. They are a powerful learning tool – not because they are full of valuable information, but because, for some bizarre, primitive, inexplicable reason – kids feel good about cartoons. Why not use what they feel good about to get them to feel good about learning, about creating, about school – about themselves.
Back in grade five, I remember the school gathering for an assembly in the auditorium. The air cracked with laughter. The Principal rose, jingling change in his pocket and demanded silence.
Emma Smolders oblivious to her surroundings was laughing uncontrollably at her classmate’s joke. The Principal pointed a gnarled, accusing finger at her and barked, “Young girl, if you are going to laugh, go out in the hall and laugh by yourself!”
Back then laughing and learning were thought to be of two different worlds. The Principal might have done well to have harnessed the young crowd’s upbeat mood to get his message across.
We all learn more when we are having fun. It’s time laughter was brought back into the classroom and the auditorium. No one should have to suffer the cruel fate of going out into the hall to laugh by themselves.
Log McQuaig
Toronto, 2012