Blue Corn Comics -- Educators

Educators

When you don't see your own images through the media or in books, you start thinking you're weird, and your self-esteem gets bruised.

Francisco Alarcón, poet and director of Spanish for Native Speakers, UC Davis

Children can grow up with a strong, powerful culture in the home, but if they don't have that validated in the classroom, they start to feel that in order to fit in they have to leave their culture behind.

Mari Womack, professor of cultural anthropology, UCLA Extension

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The challenge
Q: How do we interest today's jaded youth in Native American culture?
How do we get them to read?
A: PEACE PARTY, a multicultural comic book featuring Native Americans.

Consider using PEACE PARTY to increase reading and awareness of Native American cultures. Bulk orders of PEACE PARTY are available at wholesale prices for educational uses.

Possible ways to use PEACE PARTY include:

Placing it in schools and libraries to spur kids to read.
Developing teaching guides and materials to present historical and cultural lessons.
Translating the comic book into Native languages to preserve and strengthen them.
Employing students as interns on the artistic or business aspects of PEACE PARTY.
Creating micro-enterprises such as t-shirts or trading cards based on the comic.
Offering PEACE PARTY as a reward for educational efforts among students or classes.

The details
PEACE PARTY's objectives
Age-appropriateness of material
Our Board of Advisors
More on the publisher's background
Classroom activities using PEACE PARTY
Quotes from interested educators

Samples of the comic
To see what PEACE PARTY is like, please review the Contents page. Among the materials listed there are the script, cover, and first seven pages for the first issue.

Teaching guide
We hope to develop a teaching guide for educators to use in classrooms and libraries. If you're interested, please contact publisher Rob Schmidt.

Grant proposal
For more on why comics are a good idea in general and PEACE PARTY is a good idea in particular, see the PEACE PARTY Grant Proposal. There you'll find a case made for comics as prime reading material in today's multicultural world.

While we work on more stories, we're looking for tribal organizations we can partner with to fund the effort. The basic idea is that an organization and Blue Corn Comics would apply for grants together; then Blue Corn Comics would use the money to produce topnotch comics for the organization. See the Tribal Language and Cultural Preservation Proposal for more details.

Lectures and presentations
Rob has spoken on such multicultural topics as

He also can speak on the issues presented on this website, including

To have him speak at your school or conference, please contact Rob.

For more information
To explore any of the above possibilities, or to review a free copy of PEACE PARTY for your school or library, e-mail Rob or call (310) 641-8931.

Other resources for educators
Pictographs: preserving Native languages and cultures through words and pictures
Teaching Young Children About Native Americans
Cradleboard Teaching Project
Native Culture and Language—Reading Activities
Top 10 Graphic Novels for Youth
American Indian Heritage Month: resources for the media, schools, and the Web

* More opinions *

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Copyrighted material is posted under the Fair Use provision of the Copyright Act,
which allows copying for nonprofit educational uses including criticism and commentary.

Comments sent to the publisher become the property of Blue Corn Comics
and may be used in other postings without permission.