Most authentic (and effective) learning takes place through immitation or mimicry. This is how an infant learns to walk and talk. She imitates the sounds and actions of the adults around her, and incrementally fine-tunes her early efforts so that they more and more closely match what she hears and sees in others. It is not simply the case that she does immitate, but that she desperately wants to mimic what she hears and sees. As Robert Fulghum said, “Don’t worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you.”
But imitation isn't always beneficial. If you grow up in an authoritarian environment where obedient behaviour is prized over independent and original thinking, you are less likely to develop a mindset comprising analytical, critical and creative thinking skills than if you grow up in an environment supportive of independent and original thinking. The typical behaviours of the adults and peers in the environment build a mental framework in the young which anchors their expectations and actions. If you're surrounded by a culture of reading, learning and contemplation, then these become second nature. The question, then, is how to provide learners with a model of such a culture?
Many religions use parables as a means of role-modelling behaviour. Some philosophers (such as Tolstoy, Sartre, Nietzsche, Goethe and Rand) have used fiction to provide role models of virtuous and villainous characters. And many popular novelists and graphic novelists have created characters who are role models of courage, daring, virtue and other positive traits. Young children reading Tintin or Harry Potter, for instance, identify with the characters and want to be like them.
For these reasons our characters model key analytical, critical and creative thinking skills and dispositions in the context of comics. These illustrated stories allow learners to observe and experience a culture of thinking and science. Since the characters in the story are the same age as their readers, learners can see the characters as their peers.
