Comics can be 'gateway' to regular reading

JAKARTA (JP): Comic books can stimulate children's interest in reading, experts said Saturday.

Educator Henny Supolo Sitepu, cartoonist Dwi Koendoro, literary critics Sudjoko and Jaya Suprana discussed the effect of comics on children's reading interests and their imagination.

Each expert looked at the positive and negative aspects of reading comics and concluded that, if managed well, comics could help children develop a love of reading.

Henny, who heads the research and development department at the Al Izhar Islamic School, said the comic craze could serve as a basis for children to develop other interests.

But parents needed a strategy and should provide assistance because not all comics were suitable reading material, she said.

She said comics that displayed sadism and violence were examples of unsuitable reading material for children.

"What's important in comics is that parents can use them to explore children's other interests," she said at a seminar organized by the new Tablo children's comic tabloid.

Parents needed to discuss the contents of comics with their children, help them explore the possibilities of other plots, and "step up the level of difficulty in the reading through critical questions," she said

"It is naive to hope that through an interest in comics children will automatically enjoy other forms of reading," she said.

Children needed to be stimulated to broaden their reading interests, she said.

Parents can help their children by reading aloud to them and helping them choose books, she said.

"Without it (the assistance), a child will become a mere comic reader," Henny said.

Jaya Suprana agreed and said comics were only a medium and could be positive or negative depending on how they were utilized to develop creativity and reading interest.

Sudjoko, a professor of fine arts and design at the Bandung Institute of Technology, expressed alarm at Indonesians' poor reading habits.

He said the situation was dire enough to merit concerted action from the Ministry of Education and Culture, the press and the society in general.

He said the People's Consultative Assembly should draw up a decree to deal with Indonesians' poor reading habits in its next State Policy Guidelines.

"What's bad is that this is a problem that we actually hide from... we consider the question of who's next vice president... brawls, football... (the split of the) Indonesian Democratic Party as national problems, but not our poor reading habits," he said.

He deplored the lack of effort to stimulate reading interest, and that the problem was not treated seriously. (05/swe)