The Four Color Media Monitor

The Hindustan Times has a report about educational comics employed in schools from India that have proven helpful for learning and regaining self-confidence:

Self-esteem based life skills education classes were introduced in government schools in 20 districts of Uttar Pradesh around six months ago. As part of this initiative of the ‘Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan Uttar Pradesh’, a set of comic books has been developed and weekly classes are held on the various themes related to personality development.

Children are made to do roleplays using the comic books and this has a deep impact on their minds. The sessions help children come out of the stereotypical mindset and they, in turn, go out in their community as ambassadors of self-confidence.

“The comic books are so powerful that while doing roleplays, children often feel that the stories are related to their real lives and that whatever is being enacted during the classes is their own story. So, the message hits them hard and the change is visible among many children,” said master trainer Naveen Kumar, a teacher at upper primary school Jangipurva, Balrampur.

Some children have liked the activities so much that they have brought it into their behaviour and this has led their parents to enquire about it from school. The school has organised sessions with parents to make them aware and these deliberations have succeeded in bringing about a change in the behaviour of the parents.

“Research has shown the positive correlation between self-esteem and increased attendance levels, enhanced classroom behaviour, and improved academic achievement. Positive self-esteem also contributes to the development of life skills, enhancing children and adolescents’ leadership and other soft skills. It was with this view that this initiative was started,” said a senior resource person from Samarga Shiksha.

This sounds far better than any educational comics that may be on the USA market today, and could come in useful for various overseas educational institutions as well. India's certainly proving effective in offering the best of scientific and educational comics that can be used as learning material in modern school systems.

In addition to the above news, The Hindu's got an article about a company called AAN that's honoring India's military for Republic Day with special biographical comics:

Rain comes down in gusts. Jungle shrubs scratch hands and faces. Weapons, backpacks and exhaustion weigh down the captain and the men of the Indian Army unit as they inch towards the insurgents. A staccato burst of machine gun fire rips through the quiet dawn as the soldiers battle on resolutely — to finish off the hostile forces, or die trying.

Their heroism will be remembered at the National War Memorial’s wreath-laying ceremony to mark India’s 74th Republic Day. Under the memorial’s four circles (chakras) that showcase murals and tablets with the names of about 30,000 armed forces personnel who fell defending the idea of India, is Smarika, a souvenir store that celebrates military heritage. Among the memorabilia that jostle for space on the shelves are comic books of war heroes, some of whose names are inscribed in the Tyag Chakra above. The books, mostly published by Delhi-based AAN Comics, are combat narratives of soldiers, sailors and airmen who, since Independence, have fought wars, counter-insurgency operations and undertaken dangerous missions.

Rishi Kumar, 41, a graduate of the College of Art, Delhi, established AAN Comics in 2012. “AAN stands for Army, Air Force and Navy,” says Rishi the illustrator, who also does the story boarding and visualisation, and earlier worked in advertising. “My family has veterans, my brother is a serving officer. I grew up on a heavy dose of Commando comics and often wondered why we didn’t have any to celebrate our own war heroes,” says Rishi.

So now, thanks to this guy, India's got an interesting way to honor their own military's veterans and history. Something today's mainstream USA comics haven't done for goodness knows how long, and you can't expect Marvel/DC to pay serious tribute to the best of American army veterans in the pages of Capt. America and Superman anymore when all they're concerned about is far-left wokeness.

Sometimes the best examples of positive values can be found in some foreign comics more often nowadays, and India's writers and artists are certainly providing some great examples with plenty of inspiration.

Labels: Europe and Asia, good artists, history, science