The comic side of teaching in a business school
Susana Carrizosa, from Spain’s leading daily newspaper, El País, recently asked for my thoughts on comics and graphic novels: whether they influence me, if I use them as a model, etc.
Here’s her October 3 article in Spanish: “¿Y si mi jefe fuera como Astérix o Tintín?” (pdf), which includes some of my comments.
My first reaction was to remember my father’s obsession with encouraging the habit of reading in his children, and how he bought me comics all the time to achieve this. In part, I think that, in addition, he also loved comics, because even when I had moved on to illustrated encyclopedias, he continued buying me comics regularly, rooting in me a habit that continues to this day.
In short, comics are an essential part of my activity as a teacher, a way to present complex concepts in a simple and accessible way, and I use them in most of my classes or lectures.
Below are the comments I sent to Susana:
My father insisted on us reading from an early age, which wasn’t a problem in my case, because I was that typical loathsome child who even read the encyclopedias on our bookshelves, to the despair of my uncles and aunts, as I attempted to use new words I had learnt there. At the same time, I bought huge numbers of comics, which I devoured. When I visited…
