It has been pretty obvious for years that if you really want to do something about high rates of truancy and suspensions among black students — to cap that “school-to-prison pipeline” — put more black men in classrooms and principals’ offices. Click on the link below to read more.
Seth Dolcy is a Barbadian industrial arts teacher who is also a comics enthusiast, comic book collector, blogger and promoter of comics and graphic novels as worthwhile reading material. Seth Introduce to comics by his brother and the first comic he bought was “Spiderman’s Digest”. Additionally, Seth is the founder of the Facebook group ‘Comics Appreciation Team’, popularly known as C.A.T.
C.A.T. has been around for nearly 2 years and has a membership of approximately 230 comic aficionados from Barbados and around the world. C.A.T.’s mission statement is: “Reaching out to the masses to unite similar minds in the further appreciation of comicdom in its totality.” In this vein, C.A.T. promotes an in-depth understanding of comics and interest in reading. Themes, artwork, writers, plot and story-lines which all make comics exciting are discussed in the group forum. Moreover, C.A.T. explores the complexity of fictional characters, considering the diverse ways these characters impact people’s imagination and perhaps even their world view.
In addition to older comic enthusiasts, C.A.T. caters to teenagers through a reading club at the Princess Margaret Secondary School in Barbados called Club R.E.V.A.M.P. The acronym stands for Reading Engineered Via Artwork Meaning and Plot. This club was born of Seth’s concern that in this contemporary society, some children are unable to read, write and/or comprehend simple sentences because they are not interested in reading what is available to them. Club R.E.V.A.M.P uses comics to grab students’ attention, meeting them where they are and cultivating an appreciation for reading, while facilitating the development of comprehension and analytical skills. This venture has met with some success and appears quite promising.
During our conversation, Seth talks about:
– How he was introduced to comics
– Why he stopped reading comics as a teenager due to peer pressure
– How he started collecting comics in his 20’s
– how did the Comic Appreciated Team (C.A.T.) team start in July 2011 and he came up with the name (started in July 2011)
– The lack of Blacks in comics and some Black characters in comics
– If comics reflect society?
– Some of his favorite comics and why
– The Club Club R.E.V.A.M.P program in Barbados
– Why he became a teacher
– What he would like to see change with comics
A new American report shows that the state of the Black family finds that by almost every measure African-Americans families have declined since the 1960s. Click on the link below to read more.
Recent data shows paints a disturbing picture of black and aboriginal overrepresentation in Ontario youth and adult jails. Click on the link below to read more.
