Comics can be 'gateway' to regular reading
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)