Page 45 Review by Jonathan
There are - in my, and probably most other pupils' experiences - two types of teachers: the enthusiastic, ebullient educator whose classes were a pleasure to attend as the emphasis was as much on enjoyment as information, the former having a highly significant impact upon retention of the latter; and then there were those more moribund types, who really would have been better off shuffling some pointless paperwork in a dimly lit office somewhere, such was their distinct lack of passion and engagement with both their students and subject matter.
Happily William Ayers is most definitely the enthusiastic type, and with TO TEACH: THE JOURNEY, IN COMICS, he's created a book which expresses the emotional rewards of a teaching career so well that it could probably increase teacher recruitment by 100% overnight, were it read widely enough. The maxim of getting out what you put in is clearly William's motto, and in various chapters we get his - and various teaching acquaintances - takes on getting the best out of 'difficult' students, approaching lesson planning with an open mind, dealing with statistic-obsessed administrators and many other less obvious aspects of the profession. And it's all done with humour and wit.
It also helps that Ryan Alexander-Tanner's minimal, slightly cartoonish art style puts one, perhaps deliberately so, in mind of Scott McCloud's UNDERSTANDING COMICS, in that the emphasis is on the content of the narrator's dialogue rather than the narrator himself. The only time he breaks with this approach is in the initial panels introducing the other teachers whose experiences are being recounted, where the person in question each gets a slightly more in-depth talking head portrait, which actually works rather nicely as it gives the specific point being made a touch of gravitas.
This is an excellent work which would appeal to teachers and potential teachers alike, but also provides a fascinating insight for everyone into how a wonderful teacher views his pupils as individuals for all their unique traits and foibles, thinks how to make lessons fun first and foremost, and how to successfully navigate the sometimes maddening vagaries of the wider school system. Overall, an A+.
