Cartoons have been a part of our society ever since Walt Disney created the incredible mickey mouse and his crew. They entertain us, make us laugh, and... teach us about politics? Well at least that's what a lot of political cartoonist have been trying to do, yet their messages never really seem to get across to the ordinary man, because like politics, they require a little thought.
Just like reading a comic strip, political cartoons need you to pay close attention to little details but we've come to the point where it is necessary for us to pick apart these little animations in our history classes because they are never very clear.
Just today we were looking at a picture of a man in an American army uniform stabbing another man of the same uniform. Right away I realized that the cartoon was trying to point out how we have gotten to the point we we might as well just be killing each other because so many have died from the war, but out of an entire class of AP level students, it took nearly the entire 50 minutes for everyone to understand why on earth it meant that.
Are cartoonist getting smarter or is American youth just getting stupider? I mean really, we have the ability to sit in a room for 3 hours in silence taking a test, yet we can't pick apart the meaning behind a simple political cartoon. Something is wrong with our education.
I could rant on and on about why our system is wrong and give a million examples but they would all be a variation of the cartoon crack; we have come to a point where we always complicate something simple in our education.
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You make some really good points in this blog! It seems like the focus of our education in the school systems now a days is getting a little twisted and messed up.
I completely agree. Political cartoons were actually incorporated into all of the social science classes back in high school. I think they helped a lot to grasp concepts that most just blindly memorized.
I like political cartoons. They point out serious issues while making fun of certain politicians or stupid actions.
Sometimes they need some explanation, but I usually find that they are simplified enough to be understood right away.